Daily Life With Dangerous Monster Girls
by RaesElke
Summary: Dora was sick of hiding her identity from the human world. Even now that liminals were known, she and her brother Wolfgang disguised themselves using their Doppelganger abilities to appear as regular humans. So one day one letter arrived at their house and she made a decision that would change everything in her life. Rated M for mature themes, nudity and other reasonable things.
1. Prologue - Probably a Dumb Decision

Daily Life With Dangerous Monster-Girls

Dora was uncharacteristically set on doing this. The letter in her hand was delivered earlier and she looked at it intensely for half an hour, and then she finally decided.

She ran to father's old office, opened the letter and placed the application in the desk while she grabbed a pen.

 **\- Applicant Given Name:** **Dora**

 **\- Applicant Family Name:** **Takeda**

She wrote quickly, trying to finish before she could think much about the matter, so she wouldn't have time to change her mind.

 **\- Gender:** **Female**

 **\- Age:** **20**

 **\- Relationship Status:** **Single**

 **\- Sexual Orientation:** **Pansexual**

 **\- I,** **Dora Takeda** **, hereby swear to abide by and uphold the Interspecies Protection Act, and I acknowledge that intimate relationships between extra-species homestays and humans are forbidden [except where exempted by the Kimihito Amendment in the case of approved marriage].**

She dropped the pen, leaned in the desk, head down, closed eyes, breathing deep, trying not to think in the possible consequences of what she was about to do.

"It's usually Wolfgang putting himself in such risks" she thought, with a sarcastic grin. "Well, screw it, I'm going to do this".

She picked the piece of papper that would chance her life ever since from the desk, handling it like a bomb, or a dirty diaper.

"I'm going to do this and nothing is going to stop me!".

* * *

"You did WHAT?" Wolfgang yelled after she told him what she did.

"You heard me, I joined the Cultural Exchange Program" she repeated, not willing to back off.

"But why did you do this? You should be the smart one, sis, what if they find out about us?" he asked, in dispair.

"I don't know, I'm just sick of being alone here!" said Dora "You already risk us enough with your nocturnal routine, I'm sick of going from home to work and back without a break to have some fun for fear we get discovered!"

"That's one thing, but there's like a TON of things you could do to unwind and..." he started to talk his way, but she intervened.

"Stop right there, I'm not interested on your ideas of fun, I want more than to just unwind, I want someone who can comprehend me, someone that understand what it is to be a liminal among humans!" Wolfgang put a hand in her mouth, startled.

"Shut up! Do you want for the whole fucking block to find out who we are?" he asked, with urgency "Do you want for us to end up like mom? To leave father alone? Is that what you want?" she released herself from him.

"We're doppelgangers, Wolf, there's no running from it! They're gonna find out sooner or later" she said.

"Better later than sooner, Dora. We have a LIFE here, do you want to screw this? Don't you even get conserned for everything father went through to protect us from humans?" he argued.

"That's different, the humans know about us now" she pointed.

Wolfgang did not seemed convinced, shaking his head negatively.

He sighed. "Shit, I hope you know what you're doing, I just can't see this any differently than a huge tragedy in the making... But then again, you already sent the application and talked to the Cultural Exchange Coordinator..."

Dora sighed too.

"Do you already know when our new homestay will arrive and who will it be?" he asked.

"Should be in two days, that's what Agent Weaving said it would" she told her brother "As for a 'who', still don't have a clue, when he asked about a preference on the homestay species, I just said someone who could adpat well to urban spaces, since our house is big, but not as much as to be confortable for a free spirit like na harpy or a big species like an ogre".

Wolfgang nodded and sighed again. "Well, I gonna check up on father, see if he's awake or heard any of our discussion".

So Dora watched her brother walk upstairs, and dropped herself in the couch. "Shit, I must make right...".


	2. Chapter 1 - Going in Blind

Going In Blind

* * *

"Sis, I'm going out tonight" Wolfgang said to her sister as he stepped out of the stairs to the second floor of the house.

He was in his usual form, black slick hair tied up in a tiny ponytail, blue astonishing eyes and no beard to be seen in his face. He weared a purple and gray t-shit that highlighted his toned muscles, brown jean pants and sneakers.

"Alright" Dora answered, not bothering to lift her eyes from the e-book she was reading. She was in her own usual form as well. Blond, almost white hair, wide framed glasses, green-and-white striped shirt with a gray blouse on top, white shorts and knee high, black socks.

"Anything new from your Exchange Program Coordinator?" he asked as he put on his black and white jacket.

She took her time to answer this time "Nothing yet...", than she braced herself.

"Ha, guess they're not gonna sent a homestay here after all" he said grinning.

"Oh, please..." she rolled her eyes.

"I mean it, and you should be happy too, sis, you know as well as I do that it was a stupid idea" he argued again.

"Well, YOU don't have any right to talk to me about stupid ideas after the Crossing Briges incident" she teased.

"Aw, come on, you're gonna trow this up every single time we have an arguement?" he asked.

"I dare you to say you don't deserve it" she said.

"I do, but it's not like my failures can keep yours from being relevant" he continued.

"Oh, there's a few long words in there, been reading a dictionary lately?" Dora laughed at her own joke.

"Oh, fuck off" said Wolfgang, even that he was smiling too. "I plan to be back before midnight".

"Yeah, right" Dora said with disbelief.

Wolfgang didn't even bothered to respond this time, he just went to the from door "Bye sis".

"Bye".

However, as Wolfgang opened the door to leave, he found something that he never dreamed to find.

He stopped imediately, looked the two people up and down, then said "Huh... Can I help you guys?".

Dora ran across the living room to see what had happened and saw the scene.

At the door, there was two figures.

First a man, around forty years old, bald at the top of the head, dressed in a black suit and wearing black glasses, looking stern.

Second, there was who was more likely to have freaked Wolfgang out.

A girl, probably around eighteen years old, with white spiky hair, pointy ears and teeth, black sunglasses atached in a weird fashion to her face. Her skin was tan, in the human parts, but her hands and knee down were yellow scales, not to point the also white feathers covering the intersections between the two types of skin as well as her short tail and the claws, both in her hands and her bird-like feet.

She was dressed in a zipped red hood jacket with adapted sleeves, as well as running shorts.

"Oh, she's hot..." Dora thought to herself

"You must be Dora Takeda" said the man looking at Dora.

"Oh, yes, that's me..." she said, not believing that her homestay had finally arrived.

The man nodded "Pleased to finally meet you in person, I'm Agent Weaving" the Agent then pointed the liminal girl he brought "And this is Basillia, your new homestay"

The girl then straightened her posture and faced a blank space at her front as she said "Hi, nice to meet you".

"Ah..." Dora searched for something to say, but Basillia beat her to that.

"I'm a Basilisk, so I have to walk around with those glasses so I don't, well..." she searched for the right word "So I don't turn everyone who looks at me into stone... So I basically have to behave as if I was blind, everytime i'm not alone"

"Oh... Well, I was not really expecting you today, it's quite late, please come in, where is your luggage?" Dora asked.

"I left in my car" said Agent weaving, than he finally looked at Wolfgang "I suppose you're the brother, Dora talked about"

He took his while to get out of shock, but he recovered "Oh yes, that's me, nice to meet you" he extended his hand for the agent to shake, and he shook "Nice to meet you too".

He looked, unsure to Basillia "Uh, nice to meet you too, Basillia... Welcome".

"Uh... thank you..." she implied she wanted him to say his name.

"Oh, Wolfgang", he said.

"Nice to meet you, Wolfgang" she said, plainly.

"Yeah, well, guess we talk more tomorrow, I was acctually leaving..." he looked from Agent Weaving to Dora.

"Well, at least help me with Basillia's luggage, then you go to your party" she asked.

He trew up his puppy eyes to Dora, but she said "It's either that or the underwear" but then she second guessed "Except for Basillia's".

He snorted "Ok then, let's get to it...".

"Follow me" said Agent Weaving as he walked up to the black sedan he drived.

* * *

After the few couple suitcases Basillia brought were already inside the house, Wolfgang eagerly left for his party, while Agent Weaving sticked a while longer to check whether everything was in order, then he also left.

With that, Dora and Basillia had the house, almost all for themselves, and as the door closed with the Agent's departure, an awkward silence filled the living room as well as the two girls.

"Well, I suppose I should show you around the house, right?" Dora was quite astonished with Basillia, she readed about many liminal races even before she even considered the idea of becoming a host, however, she found little about the Basilisks, apparently they had two diferent sets of venom, one in their claws and one in their teeth, both very devastating, but none of it was nearly as deadly as their eyes. Seems that a single glance turned people into stone in seconds, even more powerfull than gorgons's, but all that power came with a cost, apparently Basiliks's settlements were rare and unstable, most of them lived alone or in couples, to decrease the chances anyone get's turned to stone.

Dora felt quite bad about them as she readed how they where forced to live, having one as a homestay was a huge responsability, both regarding Basillia's own feelings and safety as well as that of those around her.

Yet she couldn't help but feel an atmosphere of security around Basillia, as if she had all the possible reason to be insecure, and anxious but was actually calm and collected, as if she had all possible excuse to be ignorant but actually knew what she was doing.

To put it plainly, Basillia was part of a species build to be a tragic killing machine, designed to kill virtually anything without break a sweat. Yet she seemed like those cool college girls who would spend the night out with her friends without drinking so she could drive them safely home and still manage to finish her homework.

Basillia's expression was hard to read, but Dora assumed she was afraid of feeling like a nuisance "Well you can show me up tomorrow, I mean, we Basilik's prefer to be active by night but we're not full nocturnal, you sound like you could use some rest, and I do too, it was a long travel...".

"Well, at least let me show you the most important rooms, I mean, you might need to go to the toilet or to get some water up at night" said Dora, and so she thought something "Are you hungry? I mean, you said you had a long travel, you must be like, starving. Want me to make you some food before we go to bed?".

Dora had the impression Basillia blushed with that phrase, but she quickly said "Well, yeah, if it won't be a bother, I'm really a little hungry".

Dora nodded to herself and walked to the kitchen, but then she stopped "I'm better walk you around before you can know the house and how to move on your own, right?".

"Well I can follow the sound of your voice and steps, but yeah, that would be good, so I don't trip on anything" she answered.

Dora walked up to Basillia and, for an awkward moment, tryied to decide where would be the best place to hold her homestay.

She settled for the shoulder. As she grabbed Basillia's shoulder, feeling the hot skin underneath, the Basilisk girl passed her hand around Dora's waist and held it.

Dora shivered with the touch of the scales and claws into her, with only thin cloth in between, for many reasons including the poison as well as other, nicer things.

"Well, so much for trying not to look pervy" she thought to herself "at least she can't see me blushing".

Dora walked her to the kitchen and had her sat at the table.

Relieved (or not) for not being in direct contact with Basillia anymore, but not wanting to be in an awkward silence, she asked her "Well, I'm quite sure I readed about Basilisks diet while I was researching to be prepared for when you would arrive, but I kind of forgot, you guys are carnivore, if I remember correctly, yes?".

"Omnivore" she replied "As our species can't really be sure wheater or not we would turn our prey into stone before we could eat it, we had to be adaptable to survive" she explained.

"Makes sence" Dora said as she grabbed ingredientes for a quick noodles soup "You aren't allergic to anything, are you? Just so I know".

"No, not really" she answered.

Dora cooked silently for a few seconds, and then it was Basillia's turn to ask a question "Agent Weaving was telling me a little about you as he was driving me here. Said your father was a pro fighter or something of the sort".

Dora was hit by that question like she was punched in the face. "Well... That's all he said?" she asked.

"Only that he was really good, mixed martial artist" she said, with respect and admiration "I kinda wish I could learn martial arts, but well, I'm deadly enough as I am, plus it would be easy for me to accidentally kill anyone, about any time".

"Yeah, father was really good..." Dora agreed, asking herself why Agent Weaving told her that, but not the whole story "Father is upstairs".

"Oh, really?" Basillia seemed to be trying to hide her excitement, Dora felt sorry for her "I bet he's asleep then, could you introduce me to him tomorrow? I'd like to talk to him about his fights".

"Well you can see him, sure, but he won't be able to talk to you..." she answered.

Dora imagined Basillia's face turning into confusion, but even tho she knew Basillia could not see her, she didn't have courage to look at her "He suffered an accident a few years ago, he's like tetraplegic now, and he can hear who talks to him, but he can't talk anymore..."

Basillia kept silent for a few more seconds "I'm sorry for touching the subject... Sorry for your father too, I lost my share of people, but none were submited to such condition before going, so I believe it must be another kind of hard entirely. Must be hard on you and your brother."

"It's alright" Dora said as she finished the noodles "Tomorrow I can show you his medals and stuff as I show you around the house, ok? It's quite spacious around here, so well have a long day".

She gave Basillia a plate of the noodles and the Basilisk eagerly started to eat.

"But tell me a little about you Basillia, where did you lived before you joined the Cultural Exchange Program?" Dora asked.

Basillia swallowed before responding "Well, I'm greek... Lived with my parents mostly" she stopped, ate some more bacon and broccoli, than continued, with a hint of pain "Remember I said I lost my share of people? Well, there you have it".

Dora nodded than gave up a small, sad laugh "well this house is starting to feel like an orphanage...".

Apparently Basillia found it more funny than Dora herself did, as she almost choked with the food, while still smiling "Fucked up people aways find each other around, right?".

Dora smiled more brightly this time "Well someone has to look after us, why not we do it for each other?".

Basillia blushed alongside the smile this time "Yeah you're probably right".


	3. Chapter 2 - Cinematic Adventures

Cinematic Adventures

* * *

At the following day, a Saturday, Dora woke up late and found Basillia sitting at the couch, still and quiet. "Oh, you're already awake".

Basillia slightly moved her head pointing her ears to her "Oh, yeah, I slept well, but I woke up early so I came here to think a little". She was wearing her fluffy looking pajamas, red with blue clouds on it, with the first two buttons unbuttoned, leaving a hint that she wans't wearing a bra.

Dora shaked her head "What I'm I thinking? Get ahold of yourserlf Dora" she tought.

Dora sat next to her "What you where thinking of?" she concentrated on Basillia's glasses, which made her think about how little would take for her to be turned to stone while doing that. It would only need to take off Basillia's glasses and ZAP! (at least she imagined it as a "zap" sound) she'd be a stone statue like those they put on square's benches for tourists to take pics with. "That's kinda morbid, but at least keeps me from thinking about her tits" she tought. In fact she cought herself thinking what color would Basillia's eyes be. "I bet they're honeyed, It would look good on her".

"... Are you staring at me?" Basillia suddenly asked.

"... What? What do you mean?" Dora was startled, how could she know that?

"I'm feeling shivers, like there's a predator creeping at me" her shoulders trembled apparently unwittingly as she explained "we kinda sense these things, as we can't really rely on our eyes, we have good hearing but anything hepls".

Dora felt it was better to say the truth. At least most of it. "Oh, sorry, I really am, I was just looking into your glasses and thinking what color would your eyes be".

Basillia seemed surprised, but then she said, bitterly "Bet you think they're red and demonic, or something like that".

Dora was startled once again "On the contrary, I acctually thought they'd be honeyed, that it would look good on you" she said matter-of-factly.

Basillia seemed surprised again, in a good way this time. And she blushed. "Well... To be sincere, I don't know how they are like as well, I don't know whether or not I can look at myself in the mirror without... You know...".

That made Dora think "So, you never looked at yourself in the mirror?".

Basillia shook her head negatively.

"Never seen a photo of yourself, nothing?" Dora asked.

"No, never. I know a little about how I look like, from touching my face and all, but no, never seen it" she answered.

"Wow" said Dora, thinking about the time she would spend looking at herself in the mirror, so that she'd be sure everything was in order with her disguise "It's kinda weird to think about how it would be to not know exectly how I look like".

"You get used to it" said Basillia, also metter-of-factly "Weirdest thing yet is to imagine everyone else, not knowing how everyone else looks like is kinda wierd, the few people who ever let me look or touch to get a hint to how they look like never came any close to my imagination".

That gave Dora na idea.

"Well if you want, I can close my eyes so you can take your glasses off and see me" she said.

Basillia blushed "I was kinda hoping to touch, but this is also good" thought the Basilisk girl "If it's ok for you...".

"It is" Dora smiled "I have my eyes closed now, you can just take them off".

With her eyes closed, Dora felt movement in the couch as Basillia removed her glasses.

"Ahn... I'm not really blind, but I can't see very well because of all the time blindfolded, so..." she swallowed before continuing "Can I get closer to you?".

Dora blushed as well "Well why the hell not?".

She heard Basillia giggling, and then she felt the heat of the Basilisk girl's body closing in, her heavy breath into her face.

Dora had to work very hard to contain her wish to open her eyes, longing to see Basillia up close.

She felt Basillia's thighs touching hers as she was closing in, keeping her hands to herself was being hard on her as well.

"I could swear she's just looking close into my face, trying to decide whether or not it'd be a good idea to kiss me" she thought literally licking her lips.

That's when they heard movement upstairs.

"Oh, quick put your glasses back, I think that's Wolf" said Dora.

She immediately missed Basillia's heat as the Basilisk girl backed off.

As she thought, it was Wolfgang walking down the stairs.

"Hey sis, Kinshi invited me to the cinema today, what say you? Wanna come?" Wolfgang asked while still halfway down.

As he found himself at the end of the steps, he saw Dora and Basillia, both blushed, in the couch.

He took his seconds to talk again "I'm not gonna ask what you're doing here, it's none of my business" he seemed more to be trying to persuade himself rather than informing the girls "Anyways, it's that new Warcraft movie you've been desperate to watch, so, wanna tag along?".

Dora almost yelled in joy, she was waiting for this movie for YEARS.

But then she remembered Basillia, and her condition.

"Sorry Wolf, I can't leave Basillia alone here" she apologized.

"No worries, she can come too" he said.

"To the movie theater? What would she suppose to do there? Sit and eat pop corn?" asked Dora, angrily.

"It's okay if you want to go, Dora, I don't mind that I won't see anything" said Basillia.

"No Basillia, I waven't even showed you the house yet, you don't have to go just because of me" Dora replied.

"If you want to go I should not stop you" argued the Basilisk girl, "Besides, I didn't had the chance to walk around the town yet, It would be good to stretch the legs".

Dora pondered in the metter.

"Oh, wait just a second" said Wolfgang, picking up his cellphone.

His fingers sprinted trough the screen and soon he placed the phone in his right ear.

"Yo, Kinshi" he said "Good, good. Say, that movie theater we're going to, does it have support for people with visual disability? I mean like headphones with descriptive narration, I readed about something like that on facebook once. Oh nothing to worry about, you find out soon enough. Just check it out already! Ok, text me if when you're done." He hung up "Now we just have to wait".

Dora smiled for him "Awnt, aren't you the sweetest brother I could ever had hoped for?".

"Sure I am, and you better be satisfied" he said sarcastically, heading to the kitchen.

So Dora turned up to Basillia "Sure you're okay with going out with my brother and his frinds? They're a weird bunch".

"Hey! We're normal, you're the one who's weird" he yelled from the kitchen.

Both the girls laughed.

"No problem, you'll be with me, and plus he seems the ok type of weird" said Basillia.

"Oh, thank you very much, 'okay type of weird' it's important for my feelings" he joked.

* * *

"Do you really have to walk around holding hands?" Wolfgang whispered to his sister "People are staring".

An already enough blushed Dora glared at him "What am I supposed to do? She can't just walk by herself without seeing things and she doesn't have a cane or a guide dog either!" she whispered back.

"You could hold her in the shoulder or anything else that would not make you two seem like girlfriends" he gave a whisper heavy with sarcasm.

Dora ignored him.

Truth was, Basillia held her hand as they started to walk, and she didn't had the courage to let go of it and hold her somewere else.

"She just want to move a little more freely" Dora thought "If I held her in the shoulder our movements would be more limited, it's merely a practical decision, nothing more" she told herself inside her head "as well as when she was getting a closer look at me, that was also because she wanted to see my face in more detail and couldn't from afar, that's why she kept looking at my face. And breathing against my lips. For several minutes."

Dora figured it would be better not to think about it any further, too dangerous to get into a possibly wrong conclusion. Even if that conclusion may not be wrong.

"They surely forgot I have a better hearing than they do" Thought Basillia, about the two brother's whispers "I wonder if Dora liked me grabbing her hand... She's probably just being nice. Argh! I'll never have another chance like that one this morning! If I just had the courage to..." Basillia's thoughts where interrupted by Wolfgang.

"Hey, there they are" he pointed at the small group waiting by the theater's entrance "Hey, Kinshi, Yoko, Kana!" he waved his arms as he called.

The little three-person group immediately noticed them. There was Kinshi a classic class clown, the kind of guy who would aways creep on the hottest girls without really noticing when he would cross the border of disrespect, but aways felling real guilty when someone tells him. Yoko, a cool and funny girl who happened to be Wolfgang's first crush on childhood. She eventually found herself as being gay. Broke his heart. Eventually he learned to deal with it and they became pick-up friends. And last but not least Kana, a muscular guy with a kind heart, known for being with his girlfriend since they were eleven years old and never having any big issues about it.

All three seemed to be in shock as they saw they're friend with not only his reclusive sister, but a monster girl as well. More than that: they were holding hands, like a couple.

Both the siblings noticed the human's confusion. Even Basillia sensed they're staring and shivered.

"Wow... Wolf, when you talked to me on the phone I imagined like anything, but..." Kinshi started to talk, but Yoko interrupted.

"You never said anything to us about a monter-girl!" She seemed to have mixed feelings, which were hard to track.

Basillia flinched unconfortable.

"Watch your manners Yoko, they're called liminals" said Kana. He was as freaked out as the other two, but being nice just was into his nature.

"Yeah, yeah, sorry, but you didn't told us anyways" she apoligized dismissively.

Kana crossed his arms "if anyone called you a dyke you would like, freak out" he thought, but was too nice to say it out loud.

Wolfgang began to talk, but Dora was faster "It's alright guys, I joined the Cultural Exchange Program, therefore, I'm her host" she said "This is Basillia" she introduced.

The basilisk girl swalloed dry "Nice to meet you" she said timidly.

Both Kinshi and Yoko cooled off as they realized Basillia was probably way more embarassed than they were surprised.

"Nice to meet you Basillia, I'm Ishida Yoko" she searched for something that would seem nice to say "You're very pretty, we should go out again".

"What? You're already hitting on her, Yoko? You pervert" said Wolfgang.

"Oh fuck off you, I'm just trying to welcome her, I don't even know if she's into girls!" she said.

That made Basillia blush "I knew some humans were open to same-sex relationships, but seems there's more than I expected" she thought innocently.

Dora on the other hand responded with jealousy "How Yoko can aways have the courage to say this kind of things? How can she just say it like it's no big deal?" Dora aways found frustration on the fact that her brother was like a thousand times better than her at amorous relationships, but Yoko was aways worst, because Wolfgang at least was straight and his relationships were more socially accepted. The worst thing that could happen to Wolfgang while he hitted on some girl would be to get rejected or to accidentally hit on someone who already had a boyfriend. Worst case scenario for Yoko would be being beaten or even killed.

Dora couldn't express her feelings even when she would like a guy, Yoko was just foward on telling any girl that she found her pretty. Not being able to do the same was frustrating.

"Well if I were to guess..." Said Kinshi, implying that his guess would be that Dora and Basillia were girfriends, so obviously Basillia would like girls.

"Well, for your government, I'm just helping her walk around bucause she can't see" said Dora.

"And you're certainly just doing that because you're a nice person, nothing related to her being a really hot liminal" Kinshi joked.

Both the girls blushed hardly at that statement.

Kana slapped Kinshi's arm.

"Hey! It's true, she's really hot, I don't blame her!" he protested.

"Oh shut up Kinshi, apologize" Kana commanded.

"Why should I? They'd make a cute couple" Kinshi was acctually being honest.

"Oh, so they're a couple just because they were holding hands now? What should people say about when you help your grandmother in the grocery shop now, huh?" teased Kana.

Kinshi blushed hard on that one "Shut up! That's entirely different!".

"Oh is it now?" asked Kana, as both Yoko and Wolfgang laughed at Kinshi "You just help her walk around because of her rheumatism, is it not?".

"Yeah, but..." Kinshi would give some excuse, but Kana stopped him.

" 'Yeah, but...' my ass, I didn't heard anyone giving you intimacy to pry about Dora's relationships, much less Basillia's" he lectured.

Yoko just wouldn't stop giggling "Geez Kana, Basillia just won't be herself anymore, now that you showed off how much of a goody-two-shoes you are".

Wolfgang furthered that "Yeah, now she'll have to make up stories about herself feeding the homeless if she want's you to like her or something".

Kana wouldn't just let them joke him "Oh, she doenst' have to be such a good person for me to like her, all of you are my friends after all".

Even Basillia laughed at this one.

* * *

Little by little Basillia warmed up on to the goofy group of friends, at least as far as possible for her cool and quiet nature.

As they were in line to buy pop-corn, Yoko asked Basillia.

"So tell me, have you ever dated anyone? Like, you don't have to answer, but if it's ok for you I'm like dying to know how things are for you, regardless of it being with humans or other liminals".

"Huh... no, never dated anyone..." Basillia answered, blushing.

"Never tryied, or you weren't the issue?" she continued.

"Well I tryied, but it didn't work out... Kind of a sad story, I'd prefer not to talk about it" the basilisk girl replied.

"Just stop to pest her already Yoko, she's a person, not a liminal's life walking google for you to keep asking her stuff" said Kana.

"Well she must have signed for cultural exchange program for a reason, right? For we to learn about each other?" asked Yoko.

"Certaily, then why don't YOU tell Basillia about yourself? It's an EXCHANGE program after all" Teased Wolfgang.

That made Yoko blush for the first time that day "Well she can ask me anytime, no problem".

"She could if you would just shut your mouth and let her talk" said Kinshi, wich granted him a kick in the shin.

"Huh, so... If it's really ok for me to ask..." Basillia started to talk, but stopped as Yoko looked at her, seemingly surprised she acctually wanted to ask anything. Basillia flinched with the sudden reaction but gathered courage and made her question "You like girls, right Yoko? Is that accepted among humans?".

Yoko blushed even more.

"I... I..." Yoko looked to the side to make sure there wasn't anyone staring, while Dora's mind raced "So Basillia does like girls? Did she did those things bucause she likes me? Maybe she thinks I like her. Or maybe she is atracted to Yoko! Oh my God, what shoul I do?". So Yoko finished her answer "Well kind of yes, but mostly no" she said.

Basillia seemed confused "What do you mean?".

"Well some of us are ok with it. Others aren't. There's in fact a lots of infighting amongst us to decide if we accept it as the normal thing it IS or if..." Yoko stopped to try and search for the right words.

"Or if we just go savage and kill a bunch of people for how they feel and love" completed Kinshi, bluntly "That's the short version".

Basillia nodded, seeming unsurprised.

"Looks like basilisks society has that in common with human's" Thought Dora.

They finnaly made to the counter, and Wolfgang ordered the pop-corns and cokes and the group headed to the session.

"Just realized I didn't asked, have you ever been to the cinema before Basillia?" Dora whispered to her as they walked in.

"No, never" she answered.

"Well, I can't really tell if it will be the same for you, now that you can't see, but if it's anything like how it is for me, you'll love it" said Dora.

"Well, I'm really nervous because I'll have to wear those phones you talked about. Not hearing what happens around me will be scary..." Basillia confessed.

"Oh don't worry, I'll hold your hand all the time if you want, ok? I can wear the headphones too if it makes it more comfortable for you" offered Dora.

"Yes and yes, thank you Dora" thanked Basillia, blushing, then she gathered courage once more and declared "I'm glad you're my host Dora, coudn't ask for someone better".

That stament almost made Dora loose control of her disguise. Her form flickered as she blushed, overjoyed with Basillia's declaration.

Immediately Dora stiffened, on the verge of panic.

"Shit, I got caught!".


	4. Chapter 3-Seeing Things With Other Eyes

Seeing Things with Other Eyes

* * *

Dora couldn't think straight. She was lucky her clothes didn't fell off her body, Doppelganger's body becomes intangible while midway through transformation, that's why most Doppelgangers don't bother wearing clothes, as they can camouflage clothing as well, but it was a different thing entirely for Wolfgang and her, what if they would have to take off one or other piece of clothing?

Luckily her form just flickered and she didn't turned completely intangible, but still anyone could have seen her.

"Dora?" Basillia's voice brought her back to thinking straight.

Dora looked around. Apparently no one were staring at her.

"Huh, yes?" the doppelganger replied, still not sure if there was ok to relax.

"Are you ok?" Basillia seemed worried.

"I-I am, of course, I'm just..." Dora's mind raced to make an excuse "I'm just having a period... It was the cramps... It sucks, but I'm gonna live".

"Oh..." Basillia seemed really embarrassed "We Basilisks are reptiles, so we don't have periods... Acctually we also don't lay unfertilized eggs like the harpies too, so, I can't begin to imagine what you're going through...".

"Hey!" Wolfgang called "Are you just gonne stand there? The session's about to begin".

"Let's go Dora" said Basillia.

Dora was about to say another thing as they walked, but, Basillia was faster "You know, I'm kinda sorry for you to have to go through all this pain every month. It must have been really bad, because you felt like you would fade into the air from so much pain".

Dora kept on walking, but she was in as much of a shock as when she thoguht someone could have seen her.

"She knows!".

* * *

Dora tried to keep her cool while they walked towards the seats, conversation still rolling.

"Have you ever played the Warcraft games, Kana?" asked Yoko.

"Oh I started it once" he replied "Played almost a week straight, barely stopping to sleep and go to the toilet. That was also the cause of the fight that got me the closest to brake up with Harumi. So I sold the game."

"Well I suppose being addicted to MMO does not strengthens monogamous relationships" she said giggling "POLYGAMOUS on the other hand...".

"Bullshit, you cannot be in a relationship Yoko, not even polygamous" teased Kinshi.

"Oh, fuck off, I can if I want" she said.

"Yeah? Well, I can count the girls you broke up with in my fingers" he replied "But only those you broke up with this month".

"That doens't count, they all broke up with me!" she countered.

"Yeah, because they all found out you were dating them at the same time" Said Kinshi, giggling.

And Kinshi's victory was sealed as Yoko punched him hard on the shoulder.

Dora was the only one not in the mood of laughing at the Wolgang's friends goofing.

"Dora, you don't seem ok" said Basillia, as they stopped in front of the benches.

The two girls sat as Wolfgang blabbed something about that's the reason he didn't even bothered to date.

"Dora?" insisted Basillia, when she wouldn't answer.

"I-It's noth-thing, I'm alright" she answered.

"Dora, it's ok" Basillia grabbed Dora's chin and made the doppelganger look at her as she continued "I'm not gonna tell anyone about your period" she spelled the last word to hint more clearly what she was talking about.

Dora was trembling. She felt relief tears coming to her eyes, but somehow she managed to hold them.

"Thank you Basillia. I'll explain things better to you when we get back home" on her voice there was only a hint of the tears she held, but Basillia caught the hint, realizing even more how importante the situation was for Dora.

At that time, the projection started for the commericials, and most of the room went silent.

"Oh, here Basillia, let me get the headphones for you" said Dora.

Dora gave the basilisk girl the phones and she straightened it confortably in her head as Dora put on her own phones.

"Nervous?" Dora asked, as the first trailer started to be displayed.

"Just a little" Basillia replied, holding Dora's hand tight "You being here helps a little".

Both the girls smiled.

"Thank God it's too dark for anyone to see me blush" she thought.

* * *

Dora browsed through the audio-book session of Amazon, trying to find more of her favorite books to download as she heard a knock on the door.

"Who's that?" She asked putting the e-book aside.

"It's me" Basillia's voice sounded from behind.

"Oh, she finished her bath" thought Dora "Come in" she said.

The door barged and Basillia came in.

She was dresssed in brown shorts and a simple, white t-shirt.

Dora sat at her bed and tapped the mattress, to signalize the spot for the basilisk girl to sit.

Basillia did so.

"I suppose you're here for explanations for today at the movie theater, yes?" asked Dora.

"Well yeah, kind of, if you want to tell me, that is, it's perfectly ok if you don't feel confortable..." Basillia would go on but Dora intervened.

"No, no, it's alright, telling someone was the very reason I joined the Cultural Exchange Program to begin with..." the doppelganger sighed.

Basillia nodded, waiting for Dora to continue.

"Well, me and my brother... We're both doppelgangers" Dora's heart was accelerated.

Basillia nodded again, but this time she asked a question "Is your father a doppelganger too?".

"No, father's human" Dora answered "He met my mother at the beginning of his career as a fighter, he wasn't even professional yet. He found out very soon she was a doppelganger, but he didn't cared. He protected her and loved her..." Dora stoped there.

Basillia kept silent along before asking another question.

"I'm guessing something bad happened to your mother" she said.

Dora nodded "Some humans found out about us..." her long held tears began to fall there "They went to the police. Luckily the police didn't believed them, but they didn't gave up..." Dora couldn't keep going with the story because she was sobbing too much.

Basillia placed one of her hands on Dora's shoulders and hugged her. Silently waiting for her to let all tears out.

Dora recovered enough to keep the story up eventually "Mom went to work one day and she never made it back. Dad never told us exactly what they did to her, but we never saw the body afterwards..." she sobbed more before continuing "We revert to our natural form when we die... Dad had to dispose of her body to protect us..." Dora dismonted herself in tears after that, not even embaressed of laying on Basillia's shoulder to do so.

And Basillia held her, conforting the doppelganger almost by instinct.

"You know something, Dora?" asked Basillia as Dora seemed to have calmed down a little.

Dora straightened her posture, which immediately made Basillia regret a little for speaking "What?" her voice was still weepy.

"Since you shared the story behind you joining the Cultural Exchange Program, I think I should share mine" she said.

Dora dryied up her tears and listened.

"Well... I said it was mostly just my parents and I most of the time, right?" Basillia waited for an 'yes' and kept on "Well, Basilisks don't go well with big groups, mostly, there are too much risk for accidents, and sometimes they happen even in small family groups. In big groups of more than ten people there is almost a casualty per year by turning someone to stone. The more of us together, more chance of it to happen, but there ARE advantages of sticking together... You see, we're way too deadly. We're a threat to basically everyone, human or liminal. And you bet the liminal races hunt us.".

"Wait, they hunt you? Like, to eat?" that was a hideous notion to Dora, who aways lived among humans.

"Some of the carnivore species do, but that's not the point, even the full herbivore ones like the centaurs hunt us, because they don't want to risk having us around" Basillia explained "That's why sticking to big groups has it's uses, the more people we have to fight, better the surviving odds in case of attack".

"I can't believe it, even now this happens? Even after the liminals revealed to humans and began to enter human society?" Dora asked.

"The attacks decreased, yes, A LOT, to be fair, but they still happen, and just because we're not full-on hunted doesn't mean we're welcome either" she explained "To be fair the agressive posture of some clans does nothing but to mud our reputation, still there's no excuse to assume everyone of us are savages".

Dora nodded in agreement "Is that how your parents died? In an attack by other species?" she asked.

Basillia shook her head negatively "No".

Dora waited a few seconds and asked "How then?".

"Well... One thing to counter our high mortality rate, is, obviously a matching birth rate" she explained and took her time to get to the next part "Wanna take a shot on how many siblings I had?".

" 'Had', this does not sound good" thought Dora before answering "I have no idea".

"Eighteen" said Basillia "That's counting only the ones who were born after me... All of them died before becaming ten years old".

A tear sneaked out of Basillia's glasses. Her breath was heavy, yet her voice was not weepy neither she was sobbing.

"Mother and father were tired of having all their children die. I presume you understand the feeling. So they made a deal with the king of a clan, he would accept us among them" she continued.

"I'm feeling it was not that simple" Dora said.

"Indeed..." Basillia cleared her nose as another tear runned through her cheek "He would only accept us if I joined his personal harem. My parents accepted, and even told me after they got back from the negotiations" Basillia laughed the most genuine sarcastic laugh Dora ever saw "I was so angry with them I could tear them apart... What the fuck was I thinking?" but then she sobbed.

She sobbed but quickly regained control of her emotions "I ran off. Like, alone, in the middle of the night, I made them believe I accepted their decision, but after that I fled".

Dora was so concentrated on Basillia it was giving the basilisk the shivers. Basillia recomposed herself and finished "I got back two days later and found two beautiful stone statues of my parents, kneeling, looking at each other lovingly... Their tears turned to stone too, even the blood and poison that flowed out the wounds in their shoulders, someone of the clan had bit them...".

Dora listened to the end of the story in dead silence, not moving except to hold Basillia's hand tight "It wasn't your fault" she said.

"Not only mine, it certaily wasn't" Basillia answered, with tears and a sarcastic smile "If it was all my fault I wouldn't bear being alive. Part of the guilt is already more than pain enough".

Dora didn't say anything else.

"Do you know? We Basilisks have a sort of a fairy tale, if you can call it that. Looks a lot like human's Romeo and Juliet" said Basillia "It ends with the two lovers looking at each other's eyes, therefore transforming each other in stone, just like my parents".

Dora asked herself why Basillia told her that.

"I never gonna die in such a romantic fashion" the Basilisk girl declared.

"What do you mean?" Dora asked.

"Basilisks are forbidden of being gay. Way too much need of births to have anyone not breeding" she explained "I must be the only one who's proud and fucked up enough not to leave the feelings aside for the greater good. No one of my species will ever love me" she answered.

"Well in my book, a cause that kills it's own people presumably for the survival of that same people is anything but the greater good" said Dora.

"My people woudn't agree" declared Basillia.

"Than why would you want them to love you?" asked Dora "You deserve better".

"Everyone needs someone to love somehow" she said.

"Someone who's good to you. Otherwise the love has no meaning" Dora breathed deeply "Finding someone to love out here will be piece of cake for you".

Basillia hesitade, but laid her head on Dora's shoulders.

"Would it be too soon if I asked if she could be the one to love me?" the Basilisk girl questioned herself.

* * *

On the next Friday, Basillia laid confortably in the couch, listening to the audio-books Dora borrowed her.

She was spending most of her time listening to the stories, she had never been in touch with most of human pop culture, the isolation of the Basilisk population adding to their visual disability made sure pretty much all that ever made to Basillia's knowlege was music.

Now most of her day was spent on the e-book and even some nights where everyone else was sleeping were spent catching up to TV shows and movies.

She listened to some noise at the front door "Must be Wolfgang or Dora coming home from work" she thought, unconcerned.

As the door opened, Basillia paused the book and took of the phones to greet whoever arrived.

Wolfgang and his new acquaintance Sakura giggled and shared smooches and gropes as they walked in and closed the front door.

Basillia felt confused, on top of the unknown female voice, their heartbeat was loud enough she could discern it from the couch, which mean it was loud, she normally could just hear it form very close.

After a few seconds the noise of making out made sense to Basillia and she realized what was going on "Shit, I shouldn't be here" she thought.

But before she could react or move properly, the girl saw her.

She immediately stopped making out and goggled her eyes "What the hell?".

Wolf stopped too and looked around, seeing Basillia with an awkward expression on her face "Oh, sorry Basillia, didn't saw you there" he apologized, embarressed for letting her see his arousement "This is Sakura" he introduced.

"Ew, does this thing lives here?" said the girl, oblivious to everything Wolfgang said.

Wolfgang felt that phrase like a punch in the face "She is not a 'thing' and she lives here, yes, my sister's a Exchange Program host".

"Wow" her voice still dripping disgust "Are you really ok with living with these things? I mean, aren't you afraid? Don't they smell or anything?".

Wolfgang looked at the girl like he was just seeing her for the first time "I did wanted to have sex with her didn't I? I can't remember what could possibly justify that wish now" he thought.

"I'm afraid acctually. I'm afraid you should leave right now" he grabbed her arms and walked her back to the door.

"What? But you just drived me half the city to get here!" she protested.

"Yeah, who cares?" he said as he opened the door.

"Are you really trowing me out just because of that monster-thing?" she continued to complain as Wolfgang closed the door, leaving her screaming to the doors.

Wolfgang walked embarressed in Basillia's direction and sat by her side.

He sighed "Sorry about that. Dora aways says I shouldn't just grab any pretty girl who flirts with me, that I should be more picky..." he remained silent for a little "Guess I was aways too afraid I coudn't find someone who would want me still knowing I'm not human" he confessed.

Basillia nodded "It's okay for me at least, it wasn't the first time, or the last for that matter. Was that the first time anyone told what they think of liminals to your face? I mean, someone with that opinion?" she asked.

"No" he replied, but than he completed the answer "But it was the first time it came from a person I... Liked... In a way".

Basillia nodded again "Well, you never really get used to it, but the pain from previous times kinda eases the pain from the new ones" she said.

Wolfgang nodded "Well, fuck pain. I'm going upstairs and shapeshift into the hottest guy I can imagine and post photos on tinder just to see how many likes I can get in an hour, if you want anything knock the door before going in" he standed up as Basillia laughed.

A few seconds later Dora arrived.

As she went through the door she immediately saw Basillia and then she said "I'm home, how are you, Basillia?".

"Fine, how are you? What about work?" replied the basilisk girl.

"Well I could be better if Kaori wasn't such a dick... Say, do you know who's that girl I saw just leaving here?" said the doppelganger, still taking of her shoes.

"Oh, just a girl Wolfgang brought, probably with the intension to mate" Basillia answered naturally.

"What?" Dora seemed shocked.

"Don't worry, he sent her away just as they got in" Basillia explained.

"... Really?" Dora still seemed shocked, for a different reason this time.

"Yeah, she freaked out when she saw me. I probably grossed her out. Wolf disliked it" she said.

"... Well, I DO aways tell him to look more carefully where he thrusts his dick. I wonder what would be her reaction if he shapeshifted during sex" Dora joked.

Basillia laughed, almost gagging "Well, wouldn't that be a sight to see?".

"You bet it would" Dora laughed alongside her.

Basillia heard Dora's footsteps as the doppelganger walked on her direction and took her place next to her in the couch.

The two girls just sat there, in quiet smiles, still thinking about the girl running naked out of Wolfgang's room, in panic.

"I should say something" thought Basillia "otherwise, she'll go to her room and I'll loose the chance".

Basillia cleaned her throat "You talked about Wolfgang transforming" she tought it was probably better if she didn't mention the 'during sex' part "And I realized I didn't saw you yet. When you let me see you, you were shapeshifted, not in your natural form".

Basillia didn't saw Dora blush, but she did hear as her heartbeat accelerated.

"W-well... Yeah... What do you mean by it?" she asked.

"Well..." it was Basillia's turn to blush, and Dora could see it very well "Do you think I can? I mean, see you in your natural form?".

Dora swallowed dry and blushed even further "Well, you do know I'll loose my clothes if I shapeshift, right?".

Basillia considered saying "I know, and I'm ok with it if you are" but she preffered "I can wait for you to change clothes, no problem".

Dora nodded to herself "Well, ok then" she hesitated, but took Basillia's hand and said "Here, come with me".

"What?! I thought she were going to change and would come back down there then. Why is she taking me with her?" Basillia thought, almost in panic as she followed Dora.

They entered Dora's room and the doppelganger left Basillia sitting on the very bed where they shared their suffering stories and immediately shapeshifted to her normal form, letting her clothes fall to the ground, before she could think further on the matter and don't run the risk of changind her mind.

"Oh my God, I'm naked in front of her. Oh my God, I'm naked, in front of her..." She thought in loop as she collected her clothes and dressed them as quickly as she could.

When she finished, Dora dropped herself on the bed, already with her eyes closed "You can take your glasses of now".

Basillia did that, and felt things happening inside her shorts as she saw Dora laid in her bed with the t-shirt up just enough for her belly button to appear.

"She's even more beautiful in her natural form" she thought.

Dora's huge long hair was clean white, like Basillia's own hair and feathers, surrounding her body like streamers, going in and out of her clothes, looking like it was moving on it's own "I heard Doppelganger's powers come from their hair" she thoguht. Her skin was brown, a little darker than Basillia's tan. Her ears were slightly pointy, but far less than Basillia's.

Dora felt Basillia going above her. Not really mounting full on, but she could feel her skin pressing against her.

Once again, Dora felt Basillia's breath on her lips, the urge to open her eyes "... I wish I could open my eyes and see you right now..." she declared.

A few seconds of silence "...Well, you can" said Basillia.

"... Really?" Dora asked.

"Really. I have my eyes closed" she answered.

Dora opened her eyes.

She could see Basillia's face on full detail. Her angled jaw, the round cheeks and cheekbones, her pointy nose, the pointy teeth showing form out her rosy lips, the almost transparent eyelashes, the eyelids bruised from constantly using the glasses.

Dora just couldn't hold herself, when she realized it, her eyes were closed again. And they were kissing.

* * *

Epilogue: Wolfgang walked out of his room still dressing his t-shirt, hurrying to the ringing phone.

"Dammit, what the fuck is Dora doing? She usually answers the phone" he grumbled.

"Hello" he said as he answered the phone.

"Hello, Agent Weaving speaking. I'm looking for miss Dora Takeda" said the voice on the phone.

"Oh, Mister Agent, Uh, I can call my sister, but, what is it? Is there a problem?" he asked, worryied.

"Oh, no no no, I just called to ask her when would she be ready to recieve her next homestay" the agent replied.


	5. Chapter 4 - Behold the Princess!

Author's Note: Please Review if you can spare the time, I really can use reader's opinion's to improve my writing, it support's me very much ^^'

* * *

Behold The Princess!

* * *

"You gotta be kidding me" Said Dora on the phone.

"I'm not" Said Agent Weaving on the other side of the call.

"You must be. There's a fucking WEEK since you called saying you would bring another homestay" She yelled "I said 'no, I never asked for this, Basillia's enough' then you said 'Dora, think about the liminal's, there are so many of them trying to find a host, some of them don't have other place to live, it's their only chance!' so I said 'fine you can bring another one in two days'. So I waited and you told me that the homestay who was going to live with me CANCELED his travel!".

"But you already forgave me" argumented Weaving.

"Yeah TWO TIMES this week! And now I thought I was going to be letf alone you call me and say there's a homestay coming up TODAY?" She said.

"I know, I know, I'm sorry, I really am, but I didn't expected that either, they just trew this girl in my hands, now I really don't have any other option" He apologized with that calm voice of his.

"And just when did I signed up to be your adoptive mother? You're an adult, work that out on your own" she lectured.

"I am working that out. You where ready to recieve a new homestay the hole week what changed now?" he asked.

"It changed I won't let you play me by a fool" she answered.

"You're not a fool. That's why I expect you to understand, she picked you, and she demanded to be brought to the new home today!" he said.

Dora felt confused.

"What do you mean? She 'demanded' what is she? A Queen?" the doppelganger asked.

"Almost" answered the Agent.

Dora fell silent "Weaving, tell me who the fuck she is or I'm turning off that call and locking my door up until next week" she treatened.

"She's a Princess in fact. One of the daughters of the Beholder's King. She's VERY important Dora, that's the first time the Beholders even spoke to the humans, they're a very pround people, and I don't want to put too much pressure on your shoulders but..." he fell silent as if he couldn't reunite the courage to continue.

Dora was pale, trembling with the notion of housing nobility of such an unstable race "But what? Just fucking tell me already!".

"But if anything happens to her in her homestay, I'm afraid we're gonna have more than just a diplomatic crisis in our hands..." Agent Weaving took a deep breath and finally opened up "Her impression on our culture might be what keeps us from war against the Beholders".

* * *

"WHAT?" said Wolfgang.

"Oh, come on, you heard me on the first time, Wolf!" said Dora.

"I did, but I still not believe. How can you agree with this?" he asked.

"How could I not? It's more on the table than us here, if a war against the beholders blows off can you imagine how many will die?" said Dora "Do you even know what they are? If the basilisks have a rival for the spot of most deadly liminal race that's the beholders, only that they can acctually control who they kill!" said Dora, but then she added up "No offense meant Basillia".

"No, you're right" the basilisk girl talked for the first time on that conversation "We Basilisk have little control over our natural weapons, they ARE deadlier than the Beholder's but they have way more destructive power, when Basilisks attack we leave the house with a few drops of blood and some stone statues. When the Beholders attack they don't leave a house behind" she said.

That turned Wolfgang a little green "Oh man, we're screwed...".

"But let's not judge yet" said Basillia "You know me, but I'm not like most of my people. That girl may just be more civil and less arrogant than most Beholders".

"We're lucky we got you Basillia, you're cool and quiet, but you're an exception for your species, you said that yourself" said Wolfgang "She's royalty! Human royalty has already a history, just imagine how spoiled and lofty a Beholder Princess must be".

"You're overreacting Wolf, we should be more concerned with the people she encounters than with her by itself" said Dora "We already had prejudice problems here, and if someone speaks ill of her we're gonna have a problem, but I don't think she's gonna be over temperamental, the Beholders wouldn't send someone in peace if they didn't wanted peace to begin with".

Wolfgang kept making negative signs with his head.

"I gonna take a bath. Want to smell good for the angel girls who will welcome me at the heavens" he said as he walked out of the room.

Dora glared at him as he walked up "Arrogant idiot".

"Do not blame him Dora, he's just afraid" said Basillia.

Dora sat by her side and laid her head on her shoulder "I'm afraid too to be fair...".

"We all are" said Basillia "But we shouldn't. I'm sure she's gonna be a sweet girl, you'll see".

"She's not gonna be sweeter than you, I'm sure" said Dora.

"Nah, I'm salty. You're the one that's sweet" giggled Basillia.

The two girls remained silent for a while and then Basillia spoke again "Tell me... I only heard of the Beholders, but mostly of stories of they attacking and conquering other races territory. I know they somehow can launch laser beans or something, but something tells me they aren't like people described them for me".

"What do you mean?" asked Dora without taking her head off Basillia's shoulder.

"I mean they can't be just giant floating heads with lots of eyes and tentacles, can they?" she asked with a hint of embarrasment.

Dora couldn't help but laugh "Oh no, that's how the humans depicted them BEFORE the liminals came into light, Beholder's are acctually a cousin species to the Monoeye" she explained.

"Oh" the Baslilsk girl nodded.

"The main difference is the Beholders have many tentacles on their heads, each with another eye on. And they can fire laser beans from the eyes" completed Dora.

"Yeah..." said Basillia "When will she arrive?".

Someone knocked the door that time.

"May just be right now" Said Dora as she got up.

Basillia sat quietly listening as her girlfriend attended to the door.

As the door opened Dora jumped back, scared.

"What the heck?" she yelled.

"What sort of language is this?" said the petite teenage girl standing at the door.

She had black bob cut hair, dozens of tentacles, each one with an puprle eye at the tip, tied up like pigtails, and an big purple eye occupying the space of both the eyes a two eyed species would have, with a small nose between the eye and a mouth covered in deep green lipstick.

She weared a dark red sweater with green butterflies on the left shoulder, a red and gray plaid skirt, knee high socks in the same pattern of the skirt and black leather boots.

But Dora was not scared by the gothic lolita Beholder, but by the ten Beholder bodyguards dressed in full plate armor who were accompanying her.

And the bodyguards didn't seemed happy.

Agent Weaving squeezed himself between the bodyguards and adressed Dora and the Princess.

"Oh Dora, I see you met our Highness and her escort" he said, friendly.

Dora looked each bodyguard in the face, intimidated by their bizarre one piece black-glasses and tentacle ponytails "They are not going to stay, are thay?" she asked frightened.

Agent Weaving looked carefully at the bodyguards and answered "Well, The Beholder King was insistent that his daughter should have trustworthy secutiry, at least until she was delivered to her host, when we finally had him understand that being severed from the origin culture to learn human's was the whole point of the program".

"An over-protecting father. That's compreensive" said Dora, dizzy.

The Princess didn't looked happy.

"Don't talk about me as if I'm not here, you lowborn should be more corteous" she said, boastful.

"Oh, sorry, sorry your Highness" said Agent Weaving "Would you allow me to introduce you?".

She wavered her hand in disdain "As if you could even remember my full name and titles. Even if you did, you should have introduced me as I arrived, not after you already exchanged pleasantries" she turned herself you Dora "I'll have you know I'm Beatrice Ulther-Risen Gargon de Drakenfell, Seventh line Princess, Duchess of the Skull Gardens and Mistress of the Beholder Kingdom" she said in an official manner.

Dora looked the Princess in the eye and nodded as if she understood anything she said.

The Princess sighed "I shall grant you a concession and allow you and your kind to adress me as 'Beatrice'" she extended her hand for Dora to shake.

Dora immediately held and shook her "Oh yes, sorry, my name is Dora Takeda. It's a pleasure to meet you" she said friendly.

Beatrice nodded pompously as she shook back "Yes, indeed it should be a pleasure for both of us".

"Uh, I suppose you have luggage?" said Dora.

Beatrice looked at her like she was an alien "It is evident I have luggage" she said.

Dora remained quiet for another second "Well, we should go get it, right?".

"Unnecessary" the princess said as she snapped her fingers.

The guards immediately formed a line and orderly went to a parked limo, where they collected a massive amount of bags and boxes and started to get them into the house.

"Shit" thought Dora in panic, quickly deciding which room she would give Beatrice.

As the guards went inside and Dora worked out a way to guide them, Beatrice entered the living room where Basillia was sitting, listening to everything that was happening.

Beatrice immediately recognized the reason she picked Dora as a host in the first place "Oh, you must be the Basilisk girl I readed about!" she said as she sat by Basillia's side and crossed her legs ladylike.

Basillia got confused "I'm sorry?".

"I'm Princess Beatrice of the Beholders, but you can call me just Beatrice. I'm to be the new homestay" she introduced herself.

"My name is Basillia. What did you readed about me?" she asked.

"Oh, just that you where the first Basilisk to join Japan's Cultural Exchange Program, I wanted nothing but the best as a host, so I demanded to be assigned to the same host as you" she said proudly.

"Oh... You made a good choice. Dora is excellent, she's really kind and supportive, and her brother Wolfgang is a sweet too, he's just flirty and a little goofy" praised Basillia.

"Oh, is he handsome?" asked Beatrice in a secretive whisper.

"Uh..." Basillia pondered on how to answer this "I wouldn't know, never saw him" she pointed the glasses.

Beatrice quickly apologized as she realized it "Oh, sorry, sorry, I didn't knew you where blind, it must be hard, I'm really sorry".

"But i'm not blind" said Basillia with a weak laugh.

Beatrice was confused now "What do you mean? Why do you wear those glasses you you are not blind?" she asked.

Basillia let out another weak laugh "Well, I kinda don't want to turn everyone who looks at me to stone, so it's a small price to pay...".

The Princess was horrorified with the notion "But don't they trust you? Why would you have to conceal your might just for other's fears?" she asked.

"Well they DO trust me, that's why I wear the glasses in the first place, it is not as if I can help it, there are already plenty enough accidents among us" Basillia explained.

But Beatrice was still horrorified "It does not feel right. It's like the humans are muzzling you" then a hideous thought occurred to her "They are not going to make me wear these glasses too, right?" she asked on the verge of panic.

"No, no, no" said Basillia showing her palms on an attempt to calm the princess down "I acctually asked for it. It's way more confortable than the bandages I used to wear before, and safer too. You beholders can control your powers, don't you? You have nothing to fear".

"Ok..." said Beatrice, kind of disappointed, but she decided to keep on the conversation still "So tell me, how have the humans been to you so far?".

Basillia once again pondered on how to answer. It was probably better not mention the thing with the girl Wolfgang brought home. Better stick to his friends "Oh the humans don't know much of us yet, mostly the most reclusive species like ourselves, but the ones I encountered so far where nice, mostly".

"Good, so ALL of them have been kind to you?" asked Beatrice.

Basillia felt a twtich on her back and something told her it was better not lie "Well there was ONE girl who mistreated me, but Wolfgang, Dora's brother, quickly took care of her".

"Oh, I didn't knew he was a warrior" said Beatrice.

Basillia was startled "Excuse me?".

"How did he did it? He has a sword or something or he just got in bare handed?" the Princess asked.

Basillia felt a drop of sweat streaming in her forehead "He... Didn't. He's not a warrior, he just sent her away...".

Beatrice was startled once again "What? She mistreated you and you just left her alive?" it was an inconceivable notion to her, who lived in a place where deliberate insults where rare, and normally would only be used on life and death situations, where violence was inevitable.

"... Yeah... We can't just kill people around here..." said Basillia carefully.

"Why?" the princess asked.

"It's against the law. If a human even hurts anyone, for any reason other than like, self defense in life and death situations, they get arrested" Basillia explained "Didn't they told you this when you studied to be sent here?".

In this moment, Beatrice realized she should have paid attention to the classes she took for human culture, not just the language.

"'Our culture is just perfect it can't be too different, can it?' Well it seems it can" she thought "Oh, sorry they did, they did, I just... Forgot. Silly me!"

"No they didn't..." thought Basillia as Beatrice laughed awkwardly "I fear Wolfgang was more right than it would be healthy".

"Oh, I see you two are already friends, all laughing together" said Dora panting after coordenating the deliver of Beatrice's luggage.

Both the girls giggled awkwardly at Dora's phrase, which made her wander why.

Agent Weaving walked up to Dora as the guards walked up to the door and formed a line there.

"Are you all settled? Need anything else?" he asked.

"The papperwork" said Dora.

"Oh, I already sorted it out, giving the special circunstances here, I felt I should smooth things over on your side Dora" he said.

"Well thank you, aren't you sweet?" she said with a hint of sarcasm.

"I should be leaving now, the Princess's bodyguards should get a plane home tonight yet" said the Agent.

"You surely have a full schedule here, don't you, Agent?" said Basillia.

"That I do, my dear, sure" he said as he walked up to the guards "Well, we should be heading off, are you ready?".

The guards summarily ignored the Agent and focused on Beatrice, waiting for instructions.

She supressed a sigh, and ordered "You are all relieved from your security duty, follow the Agent, comply to his orders and go back home" and just then the guards headed towards the limo.

After the Agent left, Dora turned to Beatrice "Should I give you a tour of the house?".

"Oh yes, please!" the princess immediately standed up "I am excited to see more of human's accomodations".

Dora signaled the beholder girl to follow her to the kitchen and said "I'm glad you are, I hope you'll like it. Surely it will be nothing like your royal quarters or whatever it is the Beholder's royal family lives in, but it's fairly big and cosy".

Beatrice barely needed to move her head to look around, as her tentacles moved like a mix of snakes and security cameras, examining each inch of the room "What would this chamber be?" she asked.

"Oh, that's the kitchen. I'm taking a guess ans saying you never had to see one. Here we cook our food and eat it." Dora explained.

Beatrice looked at the kitchen counter, the dinner table, the cabinets, the cupboard, the frige and all the basic itens a kitchen should have.

She placed her hand above the microwave and asked "What is this device for?".

"That's to heat up cold food" said Dora "Which reminds me, you are omnivore like the other Monoye cousin species right?".

Beatrice took that as an offense "I shall have you know, THEY are a cousin species to the Beholders, not the contrary" she said pompously and threateningly.

Dora froze, fearing for the worse "I'm so sorry, I didn't knew, we just make the count from them because they were the first to make contact, so...".

"You are forgiven, but be advised to not make the same ignorant mistake again" said Beatrice in an attempt to apear merciful "And yes, we are omnivore".

Dora relaxed, almost letting a relieved sigh out "I should show you the rest of the rooms".

"Indeed" said the Princess following the doppelganger as she walked out the room.

They went upstairs, where Dora showed Beatrice her new room. It was overcrumbled with all sorts of things even a few paintings of Beatrice and apparently her Family, as well as a plaster statue of the Princess sitting and reading a book.

"Quite tight the room, is it not?" asked Beatrice.

"It's acctually quite spacious, and it would be even more if you wouldn't bring a fucking 1/1 scale statue of yourself" thought Dora, but she wouldn't dare voice it "It's one of the biggest of the house, sorry. It can't be helped".

The Princess looked around the corridor, and laid eyes on the door to Dora's father room "There's a flickering light coming from the crevices of that door's room, is there someone in?".

Dora looked at it and made a sore expression "That's father's room... I guess it would be better if you see it than if I just tell you".

Beatrice got puzzled as she followed Dora to the room.

As the Princess walked in she was astonished for the content of the room.

The walls where filled with newspappers portraiting headlines of MMA fights, MMA championship posters, and miscelaneous photographs of a bulky japanese man, a blond woman and two children who where obviously Dora and Wolfgang in multiple phases of their lifes. The blond woman would just show up while there was only her and the man or up until the children couldn't be more than seven years old.

There was multiple counters with more photos from the family or of MMA related stuff in picture frames, as well as a fair, but not absurd amount of trophies and medals.

One of the counters had only a big TV turned on at a fighting channel, and by the bed, a nightstand with a lampshade, and small radio.

The bed itself was a wood, large one, with a lot of blankets and pillows, even tho some where not being used at the time.

On the bed there was the man in the photos, a almost fifty years old man whose muscles were not still all lost due to inactivety, his hair was black but already turning gray, as well as his short beard.

He moved only his eyes as he saw the two girls entering the room.

Beatrice was confused by the situation, the man was certainly awake, still he clearly had no plans of leaving bed.

"Hey dad" said Dora fondly as she walked up to his bed and sat next to him.

He just looked at her and blinked lingeringly, for about three seconds.

Dora smlied "I love you too, old man" than she turned to Beatrice and signaled her "Come".

Beatrice aproched the two carefully, not understanding what was happening.

"Dad, this is Beatrice, my new homestay. She's a Princess of the Beholder's kingdom, and her homestay will be very important. Beatrice, this is the most important, kind and loving man you will know in your homestay, and he is very important to me" Dora's voice was clearly weepy as she introduced the two of them.

He blinked lingeringly again, but this time twice for two seconds each.

"That's him saying 'nice to meet you', Beatrice" explained Dora.

The beholder took her time to react "Oh, sorry. Nice to meet you too..." she was clearly awkward.

"Father had an accident a few years ago. Thank God me and Wolfgang already could work and run the house, or I don't know what would have happened" said Dora.

"... Oh... I..." Beatrice didn't knew what to say, the Beholders didn't usually kept alive who was unable to live normally, not to the point of being confined to a bed, it was culturally considered a cruel thing to keep a person suffering like this among them, but it was clear to her that the human's culture was another entirely "I grieve for you, Dora... I wish I could do something for you...".

"Thank you but, it's an old wound, father lives the best possible life, we have two nurses who look after him when we are not around, even Basillia takes time to help when she can, so..." Dora explained "I apreciate your thought, but you probably coundn't do anything".

But then Beatrice realized she could "In fact I can" she said with a grin.

Dora was startled "What do you mean?".

"I suppose you can only exchange simple messages with the blinking communication system, is it not?" the Pincess asked.

Dora took her time trying to figure out what Beatrice meant, but at the and she replied "Yes...".

Beatrice nodded vigorously, smiling with satisfaction "I shall have you know Beholders posses psychic poweres, therefore, we can read minds".

Dora was immediately startled, afraid Beatrice had read anything possibly offensive from her own mind.

"And we do not do it lightly, we are not meddlesome, furthermore, we open a mind link as we do it, hence, you would surely notice if I were to read your mind" explained Beatrice.

"... And you mean?" Dora asked, still unsure Beatrice didn't readed her mind.

The Princess felt frustrated for not being understood, and also disappointed with Dora's cognitive cappacity "I mean I can read your father's mind and open a more accurate communication system for you two to confabulate".

Dora's heart immediately accelerated at the notion to properly speak to her father again.

"You mean we can talk to him through you?" she asked, thrilled.

Beatrice couldn't get ahold of herslef after that one "Please do not take it as an isult, but you are surely..." the Princess phrase was interrupted by Dora's hug.

"Oh, please, I couldn't thank you enough for it, it would mean the world for me..." she pleaded.

"Ok, please let go of me" said Beatrice, startled.

Dora released her, and sat straight.

The Princess cleaned her throat formally before asking Dora "May I ask your father's name?".

"Akira. Akira Takeda" said Dora.

"Very japanese... I do not know why I'm surprised, you are all japanese after all, it is just that you and your brother..." pondered Beatrice.

"Mother was foreing" Dora said quickly.

The Princess nodded "Well, Mister Akira Takeda, I ask of you the consent to fathom your mind, therefore being able perform a conversation between you and your daughter" she asked formally.

He blinked only the right eye for two seconds.

"That's a 'yes'" said Dora.

Beatrice then pointed all her eyes towards Akira, and an instant later all of them turned backwards.

"Donut?" the voice Dora wouldn't hear for years came from the Princess's mouth.

The doppelganger immediately whimpered, putting her hands on her mouth to supress the noise, feeling the tears form quickly in her eyes.

"Donut, I know you are hearing me, please, don't cry" he said, exactly the same way Dora would remember from before the accident.

Beatrice was looking at her the exact same way that her father would do, that caused a bizarre effect, but Dora still held her horses and said "Dad...".

The Princess gave the same warm smile and laughed the same easy going way Akira did "God, it's so good to be able to talk to you again, Donut...".

Dora gave on to the tears, she hugged Beatrice instinctively.

"Miss Dora? I'm still here..." said the Princess with her natural voice.

Dora let go of her to the sound of Akira's laughing "That's my girl, I'm sort of glad your shyness didn't go anywhere".

"Oh, stop it..." said Dora, trying to clean her tears.

"I'm so proud of you, Donut" said him.

That took her by surprise "What do you mean?".

"All that you're doing, joining the Cultural Exchange Program, your mother, after all she went through, would be the most proud, I bet she is, in fact" he said.

"Dad... I..." Dora did not knew what to do, she wanted to cry anymore and say it was acctually a selfish decision, but Beatrice was there, she didn't knew if it was safe to let her know.

Luckily, the answer for that question came just up.

"In fact I could not presume otherwise, your memories of Diana are vivid, Mister Akira, you clearly loved her more than anything in the world, except for your children perhaps" commented Beatrice, matter-of-factly.

Dora was, again, startled "You have access to his memory as well?".

"I do. In fact, your life was most intense, Mister Akira, it makes me breathless to visit some of the moments, you surely know what I'm talking about. It is most laudable how you defended your children thoroughly, even after your wife's departure" she spoke to him directly.

"Well, we all felt Diana's death. We all FEEL it to this very day, but it doesn't change the fact that the kids had a life to live" said him.

"Wait, you mean you're ok with me being, you know..." Dora was scared even to say the word.

"What? Me?" said Beatrice, surprised "I knew all along".

Dora kept silence for a second "You did?".

"Of course, as I first laid eyes on you. Your Doppelganger's abilities are formidable, but as you should well know, the Beholders are a superior race, we can see through your disguise with little effort, I'd have to be very drunk to be fooled by your cloaking" she explained.

Akira giggled "You don't be worried about this one, Donut. If anything, I can tell you she won't cause you no harm" he said.

Beatrice visibly blushed as Akira spelled that phrase.

Dora giggled as well "Well, thank God she won't. She could cause serious damage if she wanted to".

"You bet I could" the Princess claimed proudly.

"I... Feel a little dizzy..." said Akira.

Dora was startled and immediately started to check if anything was wrong about her father, but Beatrice quickly came back to normal and looked at her confortingly "Easy, he is just exausted, mind link is very demanding..." she rubbed her face as if trying to keep herself together "For me too as well...".

"Are you two going to be ok?" the doppelganger asked, worried.

"Oh, we shall be just fine, he just needs some rest. And for myself, I should have a bath" the Princess answered.

"Ok then..." Dora was still worried, but figured it would be better to take the beholder girl to the bathroom before going back to do a full check on her father "Please, follow me".

She took Beatrice back to her room, where the Princess grabbed some clothes (including some frilly panties Dora gave her best not to stare at) and a towel, then guided the Princess to the bathroom.

"I am looking foward to the famous traditional japanese baths" said Beatrice happily.

"Well we do have a small pool here for those, it barely fit's four people, so I'm guessing it will not live up to your expectations, unfortunately..." said Dora, keeping up with the small talk, eager to get the Princess uccupied and go to check upon her father quickly.

"Oh, silly, it is the concept, not the size that atracts me" said Beatrice as they arrived at the bathroom.

"That's it" said Dora "Please, feel at home".

"I thank you for welcoming me, Miss Dora" said the Princess "I do think my homestay here will be wonderful".

Dora couldn't help but smile at the sudden cheerfulness from the aways so formal Princess.

"Well, thanks, I do hope you are right about that" she answered.

Beatrice nodded with a grin, and entered the bath room.

* * *

She was faced with a room cloudy with steam, a full hot pool and a naked, and apparently aroused Wolfgang, immersed in water to the chest, the arms crossed behind his back and headphones turned on loud.

The doppelganger didn't noticed the door opening or closing, or even the brief cold airstream that took to the room, he was way too into the music, Katy Perry's voice singing about kissing girls would aways get him aroused, even if it was a realtively old song.

He did noticed tho, when there was a sudden turmoil in the water.

He opened his eyes and saw the petite, hairless body of the Beholder Princess, her almost flat chest and the curious tentacles loose of the pigtails examining every inch of the room (even tho, he couldn't help but notice, most of the tentacles where acctually looking at him, specific parts of him), But most of all, the big pruple eye, which was focused on a VERY specific part of him.

He knew exactly who she was immediately, and he froze, fearing what could happen if he lost his mind.

All he could do was to pause the music on his phone with a shaking hand.

"Oh, you're awake, I thought you where asleep, good" said the Beholder girl, more to his dispair "I am Beatrice Ulther-Risen Gargon de Drakenfell, Seventh line Princess, Duchess of the Skull Gardens and Mistress of the Beholder Kingdom" she introduced herself with a grin "But I shall grant you the special concession to adress me as any name you please. As you have such a pleasing figure yourself" she grinned again, lusciously.

Wolfgang never blushed so hard in his life, but Beatrice never had the chance to acknowledge his red cheeks, as he fled the room immediately, almost dropping his phone into the water, calling to his sister for help.


	6. Chapter 5 - Family Misunderstandings

*autor's note* sorry for the delay for the next chapter guys, there was a lot going on at home, I was without my PC for a week and there was a lot more troubles, plus I really took a long time to acctually write when I had the time. So, sorry if you waited too long or thought I was going to quit, but I'm not and I even considering ideas for more stories, and a version of this one translated to Brasillian Portuguese, so yeah, I'll keep going, thank you for your support and don't forget to leave a review if you can spare the time.

* * *

Expectations vs Reality

Dora had just cheked up on her father, realizing it was all ok with him, just as Beatrice said "She's a cocky snob, but she's really a nice girl, I think...".

She thought that just as she stepped out of her room and was faced with her brother screaming and running around the house, naked and wet, soaking all over the floor.

"DORA HELP!" he shouted.

She didn't really thought about what she saw, she just reacted to her brother, naked as he came into the world (a form she wouldn't see him even from since their mother was alive), running and screaming.

She slapped her brother so hard in the face, he reverted his disguise.

His white skin, immediately turned dark tan, his dark hair turned silver and grew legs long, his ears where more pointy than Dora's, and his eyes where light green, differently than Dora's yellow ones Basillia never saw for obvious reasons.

That made him flail in pain, shaking parts of his body that where no longer nearly as aroused as when he was listening to "I Kissed a Girl".

"TAKEDA WOLFGANG, WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING RUNNING AROUND THE HOUSE NAKED, GO BACK TO THE SHOWER RIGHT NOW! WE HAVE A GIRL IN THE HOUSE THAT CAN ACCTUALLY SEE YOU NOW IF YOU DON'T KNOW" Dora yelled at him.

Wolfgang would normally shrink to being called by his full name, but that time he wouldn't "OH I KNOW, AND YOU BET SHE KNOWS AS WELL!".

Then Dora realized she sent Beatrice to bath, and obviously Wolfgang was bathing at that time. " 'I wanna smell good for the angels in heaven' I think it was his full phrase... Dammit, I screwed up..." she concluded the thought already becoming pale.

In that very moment, Beatrice showed up from the bathroom, also fully naked and apparently confused "I should ask for your forgiveness. Was I too foward in my introduction? I was told japanese people where culturally more reticent, after all".

Dora had to work hard not to stare at Beatrice's slender figure, all wet and dripping, it was inappropriate, considering her recent relationship status with Basillia. And considering Beatrice's privacy, even if she did not seemed to bother.

"Huh... Let's say it is not apropriate for people to just be naked in most occasions..." said Dora, obviously embarressed.

Just then Beatrice blushed "Oh..." she walked backwards and retreated back inside the bathroom.

"... I'm sorry to bother, but could you throw Wolf's clothes into the corridor, so he can get dressed?" Dora asked, still blushing.

Beatrice was not seen, she only opened the door, dropped the clothes on the ground and closed it soon after.

Seconds later Basillia walked up the stairs and asked "I heard a noise, what happened?".

* * *

Beatrice was in her bed, not in the mood to get up for the morning.

"Less than an hour" she thought "It was all I needed to make the worst possible impression. Now that 180 pounds of hot and handsome doppelganger thinks I am a pervert, freaky bitch, Miss Dora thinks I'm a libertarian and Basillia thinks I'm a murderer..." she could not be more down.

The last day seemed to be little more than a disaster. The Princess thought that it would finally be her chance to have friends, to live a proper life, as a normal person, but she screwed it all.

"It must be a sort of curse" she thoguht "I must have done something to deserve this, it wouldn't make sense otherwise".

As she thought that, someone knocked the door.

"Come in" the Princess answered.

Dora immediatelly opened the door and looked inside, seeing Beatrice still lying in bed "Bea? Are you feeling well?" she asked.

"Yes" the Princess replied "I am just unwilling to leave bed. I am taking the time to ponder in a variety of matters".

Immediately Dora felt something was amiss "Really?" she asked.

"Yes, really" the princess replied.

"Are you unwilling to leave bed for a particular reason?" Dora insisted.

"Do you want something?" she asked, dissmissively.

"Well..." Dora was kind of embarassed to say this "I... Wish to thank you for... For, my father...".

Beatrice was truly surprised with this "But why? It was nothing much for me, I barely had to make any effort...".

Dora moved uneasy "But you said the mind link is demanding...".

Beatrice was really in awe that Dora made such a big deal of it "Well, I shall not lie and say it is not, but still, there is no harm on doing it recreationally. All that is demanded is that I do not abuse of the power and both me and Mister Akira should be fine" she explained.

Dora moved her head negatively "No, don't make this less than it was. It meant a lot to me, really. I'd never forgive myself if I didn't properly thank you".

"Well, you should not... Think of it as an apology for all the trouble I caused your brother..." the princess sounded sad at speaking the last phrase, which made Dora immediately realize what was making Beatrice down.

"Oh, don't be upset by that, you couldn't know about it" she said.

Beatrice turned to the other side in bed and put a pillow above her head.

"At least come down for breakfast... Please, I cannot have you skipping your meals like that" pleaded Dora.

"Well... Wait for me downstairs... I shall be there in a minute" Beatrice replied, chippy.

Knowing that nothing she'd say would change matters, Dora just hoped that the princess would really do it and closed the door.

"At least SHE doesn not hate me" Beatrice whispered to herself "Well, someone had to".

* * *

The air was tense in the kitchen. Wolfgang was unbearably cranky, it just wasn't his usual self.

For a refference: He was eating peanut-butter from the bowl, spilling it all around himself. And Dora was allergic, so, no better way to send a "stay away from me" message.

Basillia felt as if she was in a cross-fire, she knew what happened because Dora told her, but she was perhaps even more scared with Wolfgang's reaction, for she didn't knew this side of him.

At last, Beatrice finally showed up in the kitchen.

"... Hello" she said awkwardly.

"Hi Beatrice" Basillia greeted with a smile.

"Hello, Princess" said Wolfgang bitterly, not turning his gaze from the peanut-butter.

Both Bea and Dora flinched, like Wolfgang slapped both in the face.

Dora took a deep breath and asked "Well Bea, what would you like for breakfast?".

Beatrice immediately looked around the room, to choose her breakfast.

"I believe it is better to set on corn flakes and milk" she replied.

Dora immediately started to gather all the required components to the princess's meal.

Beatrice took a chair next to Basillia, as far as possible from Wolfgang, she wouldn't invade his personal space again. Or come any close to it.

Dora put the flakes bowl and a spoon on the table in front of the princess, who showed intention of speaking something.

Before that however, Wolfgang stood up and anounced:

"I'm gonna hang out with my friends. Don't know when I'll be back."

So, as simply as that, he walked uptairs to his room.

Beatrice looked even more depressed afterwards.

"Don't be like that" said Dora "He'll get over it."

Beatrice sighed and started to eat.

"You know..." said Dora "We should go out as well."

Both Bea and Basillia turned to her, surprised.

"I mean, Bea should have the chance to meet the town, Basillia and I already had some tours around. Bea should come with us as well. And who knows, we might come across something to repay your kindness about my dad."

The Princess blushed with Dora's persistence in repaying something that was not a big deal in her account.

"Oh, please stop it" she said "I said it was no big deal for me, and I mean it."

"But it is for me" said Dora "And I will gratify you, you wanting it or not."

"It will be fun, you'll see it" said Basillia, with a warm smile towards her.

* * *

Wolfgang had long left when the girls where to leave the house.

Beatrice was divided. She was sad, because of Wolfgang and embarrassed about Dora. And yet, she was excited to see more closely how a human city looks like from up close.

Dora and Basillia where excited as well, but they where also apprehensive about how Bea could react if someone disrespected her.

"You must have seen quite a few of the city from the limo, didn't you Bea?" said Dora as she locked the door behind her.

"Well, not much..." she replied "The guards were all between me and the windows, I saw more of the airport than the city."

"Do you have subways in the Beholder's cities?" asked Dora.

"No" she replied "We do have trains however, they run upwards the buildings roofs."

"Wow, that would be amazing" said Dora "Did you used them often?"

Beatrice took some time to understand the question.

"Oh no, Royalty has its own way to travel" she said "We are not alowed to use the same things as the commoners, we have helicopters."

"Cool!" said Dora.

"Yeah, must be" said Basillia, neutral.

They followed up to the subway, seeing one or two liminals along the way, which was less than what Beatrice expected.

However when they arrived, ther was quite a lot more. The human proportion was, for obvious reasons, much bigger, but you couldn't look around without seeing at least one.

Most of the liminals, however, where at work in some way: Inumimis and Nekomimis at a maid café, a Lizardman doing poster-boy job in a fliperama, a Dullahan running a flower shop, an Dragonewt as an attendant of Mc Donald's, etc.

"Wow, there sure are a lot of liminals around here" said Beatrice looking at the poster of a RPG game themed of a Kobold Space-Pirate with a female-liminal-only crew "Look at this! Is that one of those virtual games I hear so much about? It is beautiful!"

Dora looked at the rating of the game, which was a label that only adult's where alowed to play it.

"Sorry to ask, but how old are you again?" she asked.

"I am seventeen, why do you ask?" she replied confused.

"I'm guessing this game might not be apropriate for you" she said, thinking of Wolfgang and how Beatrice probably didn't need sexual extimulation, not for an year at the very least.

"Why not? It has something to do with my age?" she asked "I'm not human, you know. Beholders are sexualy and legaly mature at fourteen years, differently of you humans and most liminal species, for what I hear."

"Well, not according to japanese law so, you better keep it in your pants while you are here." Said Dora, unconfortable.

"Shoot!" thought Beatrice "Not my day! I should know lying wouldn't work".

Noticing that she was upset, Dora quickly offered:

"Do you want to go find something else for you? I mean, Beasillia's already set on a lot of audio books that I borrowed her, you should get you own way to experience our culture."

Beatrice took a time to ponder.

"Well, indeed, that seem like a good idea" she agreed.

* * *

Meanwhile, at an AppleStore, at the subway station, Wolfgang was bored, while Yoko struggled to choose a new cellphone cover for her iPhone.

"Come on, just choose it already!" said Kinshi.

"Oh, screw you Kinshi, you can't rush a choice like that!" she replied.

The salesman nodded agreeing with her. Probably wishing for her to choose the most expensive one.

"Of course you can, you pick the one you like the most, if its a tie, you pick the less expensive, if there is still a tie you pick on luck, it's simple as that" he insisted.

"Is that how you pick your outfits on the store? It would explain a lot" she mocked.

"If you where this choosy for girlfriends, you exes wouldn't keep breaking your stuff and you wouldn't need a new one" he mocked back.

"If I was this choosy for friends you wouldn't be here" she sayied annoyed.

"If.." Kinshi would continue the infinite loop of offenses but Wolfgang intervened.

"Oh, just leave her be, Kinshi you're just delaying her even more"

"Thank you, that's exactly it" she agreed.

"See? You don't argue, they must belive you agree with them even when you know they're wrong" he joked, which got him a punch in the shoulder.

He laughed, but his laugh was short lived, as he looked at the entrance.

"You're shitting me" she said.

"You want another?" asked Yoko, threateningly.

"No, no, it's not you, look" He said, pointing the entrance.

Both Yoko and Kinshi looked, and they both saw, Dora, the Basilisk that was at the cinema on the other day, and a new, completely weird liminal taht they only knew from Wolfgang's sad narration.


	7. Chapter 6 - The Dragon Heart Academy

*Autor's note* don't forget to leave a review if you can spare the time, it support's me and fuels me to keep on writting, thank you

* * *

Dora was quite content to Beatrice's focus on the stores showcases, that allowed her to focus her own attention more on Basillia.

Like all other times they went out together, Basillia was more going with the flow than any other thing. She could percieve sounds and scents, so if she listened to someone announcing anything she had intrest on, or if she caught a scent that she finds interesting, she would announce that.

However, all that was around was primarely build for people who can see, so she certainly was losing a lot.

However, it was not that what dora was thinking of, but since this site does not allow full-on mature content, better not to get into details.

R rated stuff aside, Dora aways did enjoyed going out with Basillia. She felt confident, in great part because Basillia was way more timid than she was. That allowed her to take the upperhand and do things that she otherwise would not.

Such as deliberately rubbing her butt on Basillia's crotch when Beatrice stopped by to watch a showcase more carefully.

That clearly made the intended effect on the Basilisk girl, who helplessly blushed to the naughty demonstration of affection.

"Hihihi, she never gets used to my butt" thought Dora.

As Basillia tried to fake and hide her embarrassment and Dora giggled like a pervert, Beatrice spotted something that called her attention.

"Oh, Liminals are surely more integrated in human society than I expected" said the Princess "They even have specialized gyms to teach typical Liminal Martial Arts".

Both the girls where surprised bt that statement.

Dora looked in the general direction that Beatrice was facing and saw that, the store that was in build was finally opened, and was indeed, a specialized gym for Liminal Martial Arts.

The poster at the front, glass door spelled "Dragon Heart Academy: Make Your Dreams Come True... With your fists!" bellow there was a small schedule, and on that day, it was scheduled for Ryu-Jin Fu classes.

But that was not all, inside the gym, Dora saw a familiar face.

"Wow... Come here girls, just a sec" she immediately rushed towards the gym, gently dragging Basillia and being followed closely by Beatrice.

* * *

Dora opened the glass doors, and as she did so, the man at the reception immediately recognized her.

"Dora-chan!" he said.

"Hey, Matsumoto-san" she replied smilling.

"Wow now, you surely grown up, heven't you? You're a full woman now" he said.

"Oh, come on, it's just two years since we saw each other, it's not THAT long" said Dora.

"But you did grew up, I mean it" he insisted "And who are those girls with you?" he asked, with more caution this time.

"Oh, those are my new homestays" then she introduced the girls "This is Beatrice, Princess of the Beholders, and this is Basillia, she's a Basilisk".

"And the two of you are dating" the old man said plainly.

Dora and Basillia immediately blushed, but Beatrice couldn't help but giggle uncontrollably.

"It's... It's..." Dora tried to explain herself, but Matsumoto interrupted her.

"Easy girl, I'm not telling anyone" and he giggled.

"I know you won't..." acknowledged Dora, flustrated.

"Will you tell me what is happening here, Dora?" Basillia finally asked.

"Oh, I'm sorry, really sorry, I'm a terrible host" she said hitting herself in the head "Basillia, Beatrice, this is Mr. Ryoma Matsumoto, he was my father's coach when he was a pro fighter".

Beatrice was impressed, but Basillia's eyes almost shined trough the glasses "Wow, you train real fighters?" she said.

"Oh I'm too old for this now, lass. Now I just oversee the work of some other guys." he replied.

"I should have figured you couldn't be that much time away from the fighting scenario, Matsumoto-san" said Dora, playfully.

"Yeah indeed" he agreed "And I must say your father and your family as a whole had an impact in me, for sure. That's why I decided to work with liminals" That last phrase he whispered for them.

"I see, how long have you been doing this?" Dora asked as Basillia was starting to wander off, trying her best to percieve the place by hearing and smelling, exited to be in a real fighting gym.

"Oh, the gym didn't made a month yet, it is young. But I have been with liminals pretty much since you last saw me. As soon as na applycation form was delivered into my house I applyed to Cultural Exchange Host. My first homestay is living alone in Tokyo now, there's already almost six months".

"Wow, that's awsome Matsumoto-san" Dora praised.

"Yeah, she was a sweet of the sweetest. She's a Kobold named Kimmy, she said her uncle has a lot of stores and liminal related business" he bragged "Right now I have two new homestays. Who happen to be instructors of the gym. Of course, I'll need a lot more for the gym to go at full capacity."

"Oh, and where are they?" asked Dora.

"Right there" He pointed to a small tatami area sided by a large and deep pool.

At the tatami there where a tall Ryu-jin guy, he had brown hair, tyed in a long braid, his two horns had two intersections each and the side of the face, arms and legs finished in hooves, where coveren in bright orange scales, and the fur in his tail where also brown like his hair.

Dora was confused, unknowing if she wasn't looking in the right direction, as she saw only one liminal, but then she was fightned, for she saw movement in the waters and suddenly the dorsal fin of a shark showed off in the surface.

But then, just as that, whatever there was in the pool, it launched itself into the air completely, flapped its tail to backflip and dived again deep in the pool.

The impact into the water splashed water all around the pool and it wetted the tatami .

The Ryu-Jin looked at Mr Matsumoto, but the old man was already walking in directin of the pool.

"Oh, that imbecile..." he grunted as he walked towards the pool.

As he made it into the pool he started to yell at it "Came to the surface you fishbrain prick, como on!".

Slowly, a shark breed Mermaid apeared from outside the water.

He had a tan skin and black, shoulder length hair, and he was clearly not wearing a shirt.

In his face, there was a sharp teeth apology smile, and he had a hand on his nape in embarrassment.

"How many times have I told you not to leap in this pool? It is concievable, but bad enough in the bathroom back home, here we can't wave you wetting all surrounding equipment everytime you feel like to go wild" Mr Matsumoto lectured, at him.

However, Dora was more interested in apreciating him. She aways loved Mermaids and sea creatures, in all possible way.

But then she looked at Basillia and averted her eyes.

"Easy, old man, I'm tough to learn but I will" said the Mermaid.

"'Easy, old man' you say. Humpf" said Matsumoto.

"Won't you introduce us your homestays, Mr Matsumoto?" said Dora, curious about the two liminals.

"Oh, I'm sorry, this fishbrain here is Jack Law. He's our instructor of Shark Fencing" said Matsumoto.

He smiled, showing his sharp teeth in display. It was both scary and sexy, on Dora's opinion.

"Hello ladies, I hope we get a chance to know each other better. And don't worry, I may be a predator, but I'm gallant in matters of love" then he blinked, seductively.

"As if you would make anyone believe you're anything more gallant than a whale, Jack" said the Ryu-jin, descending from the tatami and walking towards the scene.

"And this one is Prince Tao Lei of the Ryu-jin" said Matsumoto, as Jack, behind his back, gave Tao the finger "Our instructor of Ryu-jin-fu".

Tao then turned to the girls and simply bowed qith his hands joined in a martial-arts like greeting.

Dora bowed back, but Beatrice turned the gaze of all her eyes onto him.

"You're a Prince? Really?" she asked.

"Oh, come on! What do all the ladies see in you?" asked Jack, annoyed.

"It's called education Jack, you must have been presented to the concept" replied Tao, which got him more finger shows "as for you, Milady, I am a Prince, yes. Same as you, if I heard correctly when you were introduced to Mr Matsumoto".

"You actually heard it?" asked Dora, impressed.

"And why you bow to people?" asked Beatrice.

Tao ignored Dora's question entirely, and replied to Beatrice "It is clear our cultures are discrepant, Milady. It is a matter of respect, but even so, it the Nobility duty to SERVE the people, not the contrary. We'd be useless bloodliches otherwise".

"Excuse me" said Beatrice with a treatningly tone, stepping ahead with all her eyes turning red.

Dora immediately intervined, puttin herself between the Prince and Princess.

"Beatrice please" But Beatrice simply moved her eye-tentacles around Dora and focused again on Tao.

"Apologize" demanded Beatrice.

Tao analized her "Beholder. Extremely powerfull and deadly, even without any training, as you obviously are. A tough oponente. You won't scratch the gym walls paint if I decide it".

"WHAT?!" Dora felt the heat on her back as Beatrice's eyes lightened up.

"BEATRICE STOP!" Pleaded Dora.

But she wouldn't hear her, that's when Mt Matsumoto intervened.

"THAT'S ENOUGH" he placed himslef in front of Tao "You are grounded, little Prince. I can't see that education you're aways bragging about on that one. Now Apologize or I'll arrange myself for you to get deported and never to get in the Cultural Exchange Program again, understand?".

Tao was unmoved by any of Matsumoto's treats, but he complied, bowing again.

"I apologize about my arrogance and disconcern of your culture. I hope however that we get the chance to discuss the matter in more civil ways in the future" he stated.

The treatning light left Beatrice's eyes, but not the rage.

Feeling the tension in the air, Dora decided it was better to leave "Well, Matsumoto-san, we better keep going, it was really great seeing you, I'll surely be back here".

"Ok, Dora, be back whenever you like".

And so they left the Dragon Heart Academy.

* * *

"ARGH! I AM SO ANGRY! HOW COULD HE TALK TO ME LIKE THAT? AND THEN WE WAS ALL POLITE LIKE HE NEVER DID IT! ARGH!" said Beatrice enraged.

"Wow, he really did got under your skin, Bea" said Dora, frightened.

"Yeah! He's so... ARGH!"

"You humans don't have anything to just leat off steam and go just scold at everyone, and call them names?" asked Basillia.

Dora tried for a second to realize it, but then she just knew it "I know! Like twitter, or the youtube comment section! Beatrice, you need a cellphone!"


	8. Chapter 7 - Expectations vs Reality

*author's note* sorry for the recent lack of updates. It's getting really tough out there, and I'm probably not gonna be uploading much often, but if you be patient you'll be rewarded, because I'm not gonna stop.

* * *

"Shit, is that the weirdo Princess you talked about, Wolf" whispered Kinshi.

"Quick, turn your backs to the entrance, hide" siad Wolf.

All three of them turned imediatelly back and pretended to be quietly helping Yoko.

"He's hiding" sadly thought Beatrice as the three girls entered the store. She had about fifty eyes, so no way anyone uncovered in the row of a mile could get past her. The fact that her tentacle eyes all see in diferente spectres of light was the defining factor to nothing being able to hide from her, so all the act Wolf and his friends where trying to put up was all for nothing.

Beatrice however felt like she should leave him alone. Pestering him when he thought he would be away from her was certainly not the way to win his trust.

However she never had the chance to voice her wish to leave, as an attendant quickly aproached them "Hello, welcome to AppleStore! How can I help you?".

Dora answered before Beatrice reacted "Hello, I'm here to buy my friend an Iphone" she pointed Beatrice.

The attendant them turned straight to her "Oh, welcome! I'm supposing you're part of the Exchange Program, right? Do you have any accessibility needs, or had a phone whatsoever?" he asked politely and without even flinching, confident on his treatment of a liminal – a rare trait for humans even now.

Beatrice immediately blushed, not only because it was a new person she didn't know who was being extremely nice, but also because the attendant was also a very hot guy, that looked foreign to Japan, with side slick brown hair "No, I never had a cellphone ever, we do not have them back home. I am acctually the first one of my race ever to leave our country... In peace, let us put it that way. So I do not quite know if I would have any accesibility issues." The Princess answered thurthfully.

Again, the attendant didn't flinched at slightest, he merely nodded at Beatrice as she explained the situation and at the end he siad "Well, your hands are alike human and your sight do not seem a problem, so let's start with basics" he turned to Dora "Is money an issue?".

Dora simply negated with her head. The brightest side of the Exchange Program WAS that the government would finace all the expences of her homestays after all. Legally at least.

The attendant nodded back and offered his hand to Beatrice "Ok then, my name is Thor, pleased to meet you".

Beatrice shook his hand as she whispered her own name. She of course had already seen his name tag, but hearing him say it was good for her.

"Your names?" he asked Dora and Basillia, who both upfrontly said their own names as well "Pleased to meet you too. Now if you can come this way" he turned back and they saw that the behind of his back had spikes coming out and he also had a very little reptilian tail.

That surprised all the three girls, because they didn't had a clue that he was not human. Beatrice was specially shocked, as that kind of things do not ever go over her head.

As he realized the girls surprise, Thor turned around "Oh, you didn't see it?" he asked embarrased.

"Oh, no, we're just surprised that's all, we just hadn't realized" Dora rushed to explain herself.

"No, no, no, it's ok, really. That's very common when people see my front side first" he said jockingly "That usually happens when you're a liminal hibrid".

That called Dora's attention, as she was technically a hibrid herself "Oh you are?".

"Yeah, Dad's human, mom's a Turtle Dragon" he answered.

"Wow that's awesome" said Dora, excitedly.

"Oh come on, let's not talk about me, please?" he asked, politely.

"Oh, sorry, I'm being rude" apologized Dora, suddenly realizing that she was sounding like a human that thinks are a circus for her amusement, even if she was like dying to talk to him and exchange stories about the experience, she knew it wouldn't be a good idea, not only for civil reasons.

Thor walked the three girls into the wall with exposed models of smartphones, and started opening the protection glass.

"Quick Yoko, just choose the freaking cover and lets get out of here" rushed Wolfgang, seeing that the Princess and his sister were distracted.

"But it will just delay her even more" joked Kinshi, just to recieve an furious glare out of the Doppelganger.

Thor opened the glass and offered the device for Beatrice to hold "Here".

Beatrice held it with overbearing care, it was clearly fragile to the touch, she could see all the nuances on the device cover, she could even detect the systems wire and stored energy with some of her eyes.

"Ok, what do I do now?" the princess asked.

"We should get out of here, that's what we should do" said Wolf "She only knows me, Kinshi and I should wait outside.

"What, you're crazy? What if your sister sees me? She knows me" said Yoko.

"She won't come here for you, she's shy" he said back.

"Yeah, just leave your friends out in the open like that, you coward" she said to him "You know what that is?".

"A great discount!" said Thor, taking the girls to pay for the phone "I will give you a ten percent discount since it is your first ever phone".

"Oh, thank you very much, you really didn't had to, but it's still nice of you" Said Dora with a warm smile.

"Oh, it's nothing, I'm just doing my job, you know..." he said, flattered.

"Being a pussy!" said Yoko "That's what you two are!".

"Keep it down!" Said Wolf "She'll hear you. She already has enough points of view without you dragging attention".

"Plus, being a pussy shouldn't be a good thing for you?" said Kinshi, which granted him another punch in the arm.

"Come on Yoko, you have to understand my side of the matter" The Doppelganger argued.

"I understand that you guys are leaving me behind. That's not a friend-like thing to do!" she insisted.

"Oh yeah? Well bitching around instead of giving safe pass for your frinds to flee is not a friend-like thing to do either" said Kinshi.

"You two are horrible friends" said Yoko "I wish you two where...".

"What?" said Dora "Do you really think that's a good idea?"

Beatrice nodded "Sure. I'd need your help of course. But still, I think you would be the best bet."

Dora nodded back and waved to Thor "Huh, excuse me? I think that I need one more thing".

"I need a break from you, Yoko" said Wolf turning up to the doors, but then Kinshi stopped him.

"To the other side!" the human guy said, and Wolfgang immediately saw why.

He turned back, as his sister and her homestays got outside the store.

"Wow" said Kinshi "Seems like we don't have to fight anymore. They already finished the business they had here".

"Yeah" saind Wolf "I wonder what that might be".

* * *

Later at the same day, Wolfgang got home.

He ran upstairs, it was late so his siter should be sleeping, the only light in the corridor was a dim light at Basillia's room, who should be watching TV with the doors locked for safety. As usual.

"The freak Princess is sleeping too. Thank God" he thought to himself as he entered his own room.

He stopped by the door tho, as he saw the box gently placed on top of his bed.


	9. Chapter 8 - A Moment of Wonder

Wolfgang stoped and sat down at the cafeteria.

He took a deep breath.

Then he pulled out the Ipad out of his backpack.

"Dora must have told her" he thought as he turned on the Ipad "She couldn't know about it, there's no other way" he told himself in exactly the same way as all other times "But does it really matter? She just did it to show that she was sorry" he argued with himself.

He shook his head as his pencil danced in the screen "She thinks that she can bribe me. Just a spoiled Princess, who can't take anyone not liking her. Especially someone that she was hitting on" he thought as he painted the light of the gunshots and the spilling blood in the other side of the picture.

But then he started to paint gently, the gentle showers of rain, lighly blurring the overall image, creating small puddles in the imperfections of the asphalted street, further wetting the young couple's clothes of rain in addition the the blood, assembling in droplets at the soldier's armor and gun "But still, she would have no reason to do so and then stay back from me... It could be a strategy, but still...".

Wolfgang looked at the image on the screen, finally finished. The dark, yet lit street, in the middle of the night, illuminated only by neon signs, the ravaged street, with destroyed cars and bumpy asphalt. The young couple, passionately kissing each other goodbye still holding the spray cans in their hands, as a soldier comes and shoots them where they stand, spilling blood on the wall behind them, where a graffiti reads "Love x Hate".

Another of his artwork that would most likely be forgotten. The thought that hate would aways beat love in this world aways seemed to be a sad truth to him. And then he started to realize that, at that very moment, he was making this truth himself.

"'You have to be the change that you wish from the world' I think someone said that once, or whatever" he thought.

He saved his drawning and got up to pay the bill.

* * *

On the same day, as he arrived home, Beatrice was, as usual, laid in the couch, rage twitting about one thing or another. As she just saw him, she got up and started to head back to her room.

"Wait" he said to her.

She stacked, turning back slowly, almost in fear.

That made him feel even worse "Look, I'm sorry about how I had been a dick with you since... Well ever." He said.

Her expression was like she was seeing a platypus for the fist time "Oh, you should not, It was really my fault and..." Wolfgang interrupted her.

"No it wasn't. It wasn't your fault" he said "It's not ok for you to do those things, but you didn't knew that. I'm sorry for just bitching about how scared I was and not considering how you where" he said.

Beatrice was speechless, she just looked down to the ground upon that statement.

"And I even spreaded that to my friends, and they think ill of you because of me. Which they shouldn't. I'll make things straight for you." He said.

Beatrice kept quiet, listening to what he had to say.

"You don't have to forgive me" he said as he walked upstairs to his room, leaving Beatrice alone in her thoughts.

And she had an idea.

* * *

Dora and Basillia walked around the subway station, holding hands "It's really great that Wolfgang ended up making peace with Bea, it was horrible watching that" said Dora.

"Yeah, it sure is" answered Basillia "It's a good thing that they got out today too. If they can be friends it will all work for the best. Altough, Don't you have the feeling that they might end up... Y'know...".

"Oh, no, not at all" answered Dora "I normally would fear that, for sure, but younger girls and petite bodies aren't really his thing. And Beatrice IS legally a minor, even if her own mind and hormones tell her otherwise, neither he would attempt anything, nor she would, giving what happened in the one time he felt assualted by her".

"If you say so" answered Basillia, not completely sure "As long as they remain in good therms its good for me".

Dora nodded in full agreement "Here, we arrived" she said as they stopped by the entrance for the Dragon Heart Academy.

They got in and were promptly welcomed by Mr. Matsumoto, who was this time alone, neither of he's homestays on sight.

"Hello, welcome, welcome! I'm so glad that you agreed to help me with this. Jack just couldn't make the cut for this job, and Tao is still grounded, so, at least for today I'm in really dire need of help" Said the old man.

"Don't worry Matsumoto-san, I'm happy to help an old friend" answered Dora.

"It will be great to talk to other liminals" added Basillia.

Matsumoto just opened a big smile "I just can't thank you enough".

"Really, old man, just take us inside before the candidates start to arrive" giggled Dora.

Mr Matsumoto took the two girls into the small office in the back of the Academy and put them both on one room "I'm optimistic, but I'm not really sure that we'll get too much applications, I'll prefer to interview any applicant myself, but of course, at any time there might be more than one applicant at time, those are the ones that I'll send for you," he explained, showing off the camera for Dora "Please welcome any attendee that arrives while we're already at an interview, if you're interviewing too, I trust Basillia could handle it alone for the while?" he asked.

Basillia nodded.

"Great, as for the interview itself I took the liberty to leave for you a questionnaire, just go through it in the interview and it will be alright. Any questions?" he asked.

They didn't had it.

"Great, great. Thank you again for helping me, Dora-chan, your father is sure proud of everything you're doing" Matsumoto said as he left the room.

Dora rejoiced in the compliment, thinking of how connected she was being with her father now that Beatrice could do what she does. Before that, speaking to him almost felt like speaking to a grave or a ghost, you knew he was there, listening but there was no more light to him that he could show on his own. She wondered how he felt being there all that time, but now she was feeling that he was feeling alive again.

Basillia put a hand on her shoulders "Something troubling you?" she asked.

Dora looked at her startled "Oh no, I'm just thinking, you know, about how happy I am... About my father" she grabbed her girlfriend's hand firmly, to comfort her.

Basillia, however, smiled weakly. She was, of course, happy about Dora, but she was also jealous of all the attention Dora was giving Beatrice, even when she wasn't doing the link for Dora and Mr Akira to talk, Dora seemed to be all over her quite a lot.

The doppelganger girl noticed that her girlfriend had something to say and then she asked "Basillia?".

The Basilisk dind't answered right away "Is there something troubling YOU?" Dora insisted.

"I shouldn't say this. You're so happy about your father and that is great, I'm really happy that you're getting to talk to him but..." she stopped again.

Dora didn't undestand "What do you mean?".

"I'm just... I don't know, between work and talking to Beatrice. Just her alone I mean, it's not about your father, but I feel like there isn't that much time just for the two of us..." she said, blushing.

Dora blushed too. It was her first real relationship, and she was very scared of doing something wrong "Well, I guess you're right... We should date more often. Get some time outside, just the two of us, right?" the doppelganger said with a smile.

Basillia simply grabbed her hand, smiling, but also shrinking and blushing "There is quite a lot I'd like to do, just the two of us..." she said, actually managing not to show the lewdness of her intentions.

* * *

At that point, two liminals arrived at almost the same time.

First, there was a Land Animal Harpy, who was promptly greeted by Mr Matsumoto as she walked up the Academy.

However, soon after, while they hadn't even entered the interviewing room, another liminal appeared.

She had long wild black hair, some yellow with black spots fur in her hands and short tail, which made her a Gnoll. She also was wearing an opened blue with white stripes sports jacket over a white tank top, as well as loose shorts and running shoes, some tribal-like jewelry, like rope nacklaces and bracelets with fangs, and and plus had a backpack hanging loosely on one shoulder.

Matsumoto-san signaled her over, and then, after a quick introduction he sent her into the room where Dora and Basillia were.

"That's it" said Dora, breathing deeply.

"It'll be ok" reasured Basillia, holding her girlfriend's hand tightly.

Dora simply nodded to herself, trying to feel confident "Just stick to the questionnaire, Dora. It will be fine".

And so, the Gnoll girl entered the room.

"Yo" she greeted, with a wide smile.

"Hello, please sit" said Dora.

The girl sitted, hanging her bacpack at the chair backrest.

Dora offered her hand "Dora Takeda" she said, then she signaled Basillia "And that's Basillia" who simply waved.

"That's pretty name. Mine's Noelle" the girl answered, shaking Dora's hand.

"Just Noelle?" asked Dora, curious.

Noelle simply nodded.

Dora raised na eyebrown in response. Not many liminals had no last name, and those who didn't were mostly the races that were still tribal or nomad in some way. She didn't really knew if that was the Gnoll's case, but she picked up her pen and wrote it down anyway "Age?".

"I'm 21" she answered.

"And what exatcly do you hope to do here? Meaning, what martial art you could teach?" continued Dora.

"Well, I'm a great hunter. I could teach people how to stay fit for long racing, and how to move quickly without making much noise" she said confidently.

Both the girls frowned.

"I don't know. That doesn't seem the thing that people expect to learn at an Academy" said Dora.

Noelle seemd to take a hit with that one "Oh, c'mon, people will love it!" she insisted, a little nervous this time.

"It's just that the post is more like a Self-Defense thing. I don't really know if a stealth class is appropriate. Plus, it can get the wrong attention to the wrong kind of customers. I can't think of many uses of stealth in such na urban enviroment like this. Not legal ones at least" argued Dora.

That really put Noelle against the wall, she started to twitch her legs and bite her thumb, clearly nervous.

"Well...?" asked Basillia.

"Just... Just let me think a little" she asked.

"... You don't really know what to do for this job, do you?" asked Dora, more personally, without much of a professional tone.

Noelle was breathing heavily, her leg twiching rapidly, like it was about to fall apart. Her thumb started a small bleeding, which was the defining clue on how much she was desperate.

"You gotta help me" she pleaded.

"I... I don't understand..." Said Dora, scared, reaching for Basillia's hand instinctively.

"I'll be deported. I'm already a week here and I didn't managed to get a host. They will deport me if I don't find a place to stay and I can't get back home, please help me find a host" she asked, desperate.

"I... I don't..." Dora was speechless, she just wasn't ready for this.

"Wait, wait, wait, you have to do better than that. We have to know more if we're going to help you" said Basillia, with a strong fist, not hesitating.

"I..." Noelle scratched her head making a few strings of hair fall over "I, just can't go back home. Look, all hosts I aplied to ended up choosing someone else over me, my deadline to be here without a host is ending".

"But why can't you get back?" Dora asked, terrified.

"I'm an exile, ok?" she spit.

Both girls where silenced as Noelle sniffed, doing her best to hold the weeping.

Dora, held her hand, tightly "Noelle... We need the full version".

Noelle sniffled and swallowed, but she finally said "I... I don't know where to start... The chieftan of my tribe..." But at that time, someone entered the room.

A woman in a suit and sunglasses, wearing her black hair long and slick. She had an oficial sort of look to herself, like a secret agent. Much like Agent Weaving, their suits were almost identical, as Dora realized.

Noelle noticed that Dora's attention was drived away and then she looked into the monitor.

"Oh no, she already found me!" she said, again scratching her head "Damn you Miss Smith! How did she do that?".

"Is that your Exchange coordinator?" asked Basillia.

"Oh my God, I need to hide..." Noelle stood up, but then the door opened.

Agent Smith looked inside as she saw the scene. And Noelle, more importantly.

"Oh, there you are." She said "What do you have to say in your defense for getting me out of my date with my hot muscular boyfriend?".

Noelle simply fell silent.

"Yeah? So I might just deport you right now, don't I?" said Smith.

"No, no, no, please! I just need more time" begged Noelle.

"Indeed, I could have given you time. But you fled. Do you know how serious that is? I can't have predator liminals lollygagging around the town when they want to, those birdbrained Harpies are too much trouble already without you deciding to enjoy freedom too" Smith lectured.

"No, no, no, please!" Noelle pleaded as Smith just grabbed her hand, and started to pull.

"Come on, just come already" she said.

"No!" said Dora.

Smith looked at her, dazzled "Oh, don't tell me you'll just grab her and make her your homestay because you're just too moved by her situation. I think I'm having a déjà vu".

Dora flinched at that statement, but she continued anyhow "Yes... That's exactly it".

Smith raised na eyebrown and put a hand on her hips, as Noelle's eyes enlightened beside her "Well, that's cute little liminals for you. Not even refugees from warzones get that kind of attention" observed Smith "Anyway, I might as well do it. Solves both our problems."

Smith reached for her pocket and pulled out the pappers for Noelle "Here girl. It doesn't seem like your first time. Who's your coordinator anyway?" she said to Dora.

"Agent Weaving" she replied.

"Weaving? Ha, he must make you mad. He makes me mad alright. That guy looks like he lives in another flow of time." She small talked over Dora filling the application.

"Here" Dora said, giving the pappers back to Smith.

"Thank you girl, I'll pass this down to Weaving for you" and then she turned back to Noelle "And you behave. The next transgression and you'll be on the next plane back to Africa, I'll make sure that soft heart Weaving follows the regulations this time, ok?".

Noelle nodded vigorously, obviously terrified.

"Good" said Smith "See you another day" she said as she left, leaving the three girls with very much a talk in their future.


	10. Chapter 9 - Art at its Finest

Art At Its Finest

* * *

"Are you sure you will not feel weird?" asked Beatrice.

"Of course" said Wolfgang "I mean, it probably seems like a couple thing to do, but we're here just to have fun, it doesnt have to be weird. It would be cool for each of us in different ways. I get to appreciate art I like and you get to learn more about human culture. No big deal".

"But your friends are clearly on a date here" said Bea.

Kana and Harumi we're talking tenderly to each other, holding hands and standing so next to each other that it almost seemed like they where touching. Harumi's family was very traditional, however, and she honored their wishes, so there were barely any contact between them, even at moments alone. Kana never really talked about that, but Kinshi would never miss the chance to remind Kana that he was likely a virgin, while Kinshi was not anymore (which Kana also wouldn't miss the chance to say, losing virginity was expensive for Kinshi). Not that it mattered to either Kana or Harumi, their love was the stuff of legends and fairy tales.

On that day however, Kinshi would miss that chance, for he was not present, nor was Yoko. Both of them declined the chance to go for the expensive Art Gallery, claiming they had better things to do and ways to spend their money. Kana in the other hand, realized it would be a romantic activity to do with Harumi, and the agreed to go, much to the relieve of Wolf and Bea, being alone at such environment would be weird, even now that they had made peace.

"Oh, don't worry about it. I held the candle for them before, it sure does not inspire romantic thoughts on the people around, we'll be safe." Said Wolfgang.

The Princess had conflicting thoughts about that, not entirely happy nor sad that Wolfgang was being carefull not to let anything more grow among them.

But she also did knew that trowing herself at him right now would gain her nothing, so she just hoped for the best and enjoyed the ride.

The Gallery's exhibition was mixed, half showcasing native japanese art pieces and half a mix of pieces from a variety of nations, both originals and copies.

There was also a small mid section, showcasing art of proeminente figures from liminal races, and also a few from famous artitists that where only recently proven to be liminals, such as Van Gogh, a zombie.

That mid section, as to attract more visitors, was visible from the line at the entrance.

"It's so crazy to think that Van Gogh was a zombie, isn't it?" commented Harumi "I mean no offense of course, but it kinda gives you the chills, yes? I mean, it makes you keep suspecting that everyone around you might be a liminal in disguise" them she added "That's not really out of fear or anything, really Beatrice, nothing against you, but I think I'd feel betrayed if someone I liked was a liminal all that time and had never told me".

"Yeah, that would be really crazy, right?" agreed Wolf, with a weak laugh, trying to hide how that phrase hit him.

"Well, I can see behind the disguises of any known liminal, Harumi" said Beatrice "And I can guarantee you, no one here is hiding anything of real importance from you" the Princess said firmly, blinking with complicity only to Wolfgang with one of her eye-tentacles.

Wolf hidden a smile as Harumi said "Gee, your Majesty, you're really awesome".

"Oh, you do not know the first thing about it, but indeed I am" the Princess boasted.

"And modest above everything else" Harumi giggled.

"There, there, you can keep praising Beatrice further inside" said Kana, giving his ticket to the guard at the entrance.

The others gave out their own tickets as well and proceeded into the exposition's lobby, decorated with the liminal themed part of the collection.

Past the small section dedicated to Van Gogh, there was a small replica of the Collossus of Rhodes, which was still up in a small Cyclopses village, and recently proven to be made by them, and past it, a small collection of ancient books, said to be the oldest known scripts of the Centaurs Code of Honor, written as poetry in a foreign language that neither character could grasp.

"This must be a priceless relic to the Centaurs. I'm amazed that they are even allowing humans to see it, much less bring it into exposition" said Wolf.

"Well they did not ease up on the security at the very least" commented Beatrice, pointing the four centaur guards in full plate armor, standing in the shadows.

As if they noticed the comment, the four immediately saluted, in unisom.

Kana and Harumi where the most amazed, looking in a mix of admiration and terror into an old orc tribal totem, made of wood and bones.

There was an actual Orc elder standing next to it, and as he noticed that the young couple was staring, he started "Do you like it? It's an old Totem of Bonding".

Startled, Kana and Harumi turned to him "What do you mean sir?" Kana asked.

"It is part of an old Orc tradition, yeah" he said "In the ancient days of the tribes, when two Orcs wished that their life would be forever conected, be it by marriage, friendship or rivalry, they would stand in front of the Totem, and pray pleading it to attend to their wish, and the Totem would tangle their lifes together for all eternity".

"Wow that sounds nice" said Kana.

"Haha, I'm sure it seems so for a couple lovebirds like yourselves, however, the Totem works for any pleading, be it good or ill, or even if only one of the parts wants to bond" the Elder said "In those cases there will be a price, bonding your soul into the Totem is serious business, you can't turn back on your decision, and it will be final, especially if you plead for life... Or death".

Beatrice heard all of it and promptly intromised "Preposterous. I think more of you than to believe in such things, Kana and Harumi".

The old Orc looked at Beatrice with amusement "It is not a matter of belief, young lady. The Totem is here for its cultural purpose, its meaning in Orcs history and lore. Much like any other piece of artwork in this exposition to be very fair. I'm not here to preach old Orc religion, but however, I believe that you did came here to learn more about other cultures lore, am I not right?"

The Princess' face flushed red as the lecture kicked in, she swallowed her pride and pleaded "Indeed, Elder one. I was most arrogant in my word, please forgive me".

"Apology accepted, young lady. It is known that arrogance is your people's most proeminent flaw, as a compensation for your many gifts, I'm sure" the Orc finished.

"You have to learn to be nice to people, little princess" Said Wolfgang, elbowing her softly, which just flushed her further red.

"What do you think Kana?" asked Harumi, on the sidelines of the discussion.

"What do you mean?" he asked back.

"The Totem" she replied, swinging herslef back and foward, playfully "Wound't it be awesome if we pleaded ourselves for each other?".

Kana simply smiled "Why? Are you that so little confident of our relationship?" he played.

Harumi punched his arm, strongly "What do you mean by that?".

"We'll be together forever because we want to, because we love each other" he replied "Not because some Totem binded us together so we don't have to worry commiting to it".

Harumi flushed red that time "Oh, you..." she said as Kana pulled her to a brief but tight hug, ending with a kiss on her forehead.

"Relax, we'll have all time in the world for that" he said, as Wolfgang and Beatrice both watched, both wishing that they had someone like that.

* * *

The tour was, at last, very enjoyable. Beatrice felt surprisingly accepted among Wolf and his friends, one would think that they all knew each other for ages, by looking at them.

At the end, Beatrice waved the old Orc goodbye, and they followed along the street still talking friendly, in a manner that Beatrice only dared dream of in her time on her homeland.

She smiled to herself, not really paying attention where she was headding.

Turns out she headed straight into a light pole.

The shock was so violent, that she fell back into her rear, even more surprised than she was in pain.

Wolfgang rushed to help her up, struggling to control a burst of laughter "Hey what happened? Are you ok?" he asked, concerned, despite the giggling.

"... Yeah" Beatrice answered, before she started to burst into laughter too.

"Whats so funny?" asked Harumi, concerned.

"It is just that... I never bumped into anything before, never tripped to, ever" she said, smiling, before bursting into laughter again "I have so many eyes, that... I was never so distracted to the point that I couldn't see a thing right there just in front of me".

That made Wolf smile too "Ha, that must have messed with your head, how can you be happy about that?" he asked jockingly.

Beatrice just smiled again, and gave the shoulders "You don't even imagine" she thought.


	11. Chapter 10 - Bad Blood

Bad Blood

* * *

Beatrice rejoiced over her wonderful afternoon. Even after Kana and Harumi said their goodbyes, and the sun started fading in the horizon, Beatrice had to watch out not to get distracted and therefore bumb or trip again.

Wolfgang noticed something was off about her, but he didn't want to warn her off, so he simply tried to talk her out of it.

"So, have you always been fond of art, or do you have it as an acquired taste?" he asked.

Startled, she suddenly looked at him "Oh, we have very little art back home. Not that there is a law against it or something. Most of my people simply do not have the sensibility required. They are all about duty, and glory, and all that. The little we do have of art are political statues and paintings, plus anthems".

Wolfgang was much more shocked with this than Beatrice probably could even grasp, but he still tried to keep the conversation going smoothly "Well, I can certaily understand now, why you were so interested in the Gallery".

Beatrice kept her thoughts to herself for a bit, even considering saying so, seemed like a crime to her, but she eventually spit it out "It is so odd. The Beholders are so advanced, so superior. And yet, it seems like we just ward ourselves behind our power and fear to be contested, like flinching for a single milisecond would be our doom. Like we had no time to anything else than perfection and victory, and we would be useless otherwise".

Wolfgang smiled at that "Don't think too hard about it, you might bumb into something again" he teased.

And she smiled as well.

* * *

As Beatrice walked in home, she noticed something was off.

First, there were spots of dirt on the ground. Wich was unbeliavable, considering the japanese custom to leave the shoes by the door. They were very small, barely noticeable, even for her, so no way anyone else even saw them, however there were one other thing: The whole place smelled like smoke and barbecue meat.

"Oh, my God... Sister, just when you learned to cook like that? It smells amazing!" Wolfgang shouted into the kitchen.

"Oh it's not me" said Dora's voice, much closer than Wolf expected.

Dora was laid in the couch, reading her e-book, and she waved her brother over.

He narrowed his eyes, suspiciously "Basillia never coocked around here, and it can't be you. Just what is going on here?".

"You may want to sit down" she answered.

"Dora..." Wolf said, warningly, as he sat in front of his sister.

Beatrice just stood where she were, listening, there was noise coming from upstairs, someone was definetely watching TV, but most importantly, there was someone coocking, she could hear it.

"I believe that I owe you explanation over Noelle" Dora said.

Wolfgang simply raised an eyebrown.

"She is a Gnoll, and she will be our new homestay" said Dora.

Wolfgang didn't know about the Gnoll, but Beatrice did.

Pack hunters, carnivore. Very anti-social as well, and violent to outsiders, among the very few liminal races, not only still tribal and nomad, but also in general bad relations with the humans. Basilisks, Beholders, and now Gnolls, Dora was beginning a collection there, species that barely had any contact other than martial even with other liminals, all plucked together in a house.

Sounds like a perfect recipee for violence, right?

Not entirely untrue.

Beatrice rushed to the kitchen, as soon as she heard the word Gnoll.

Noelle was dressed casually.

She had a bath earlier, and was now wearing a very loose and revealing gray tank top, a very short claret with white stripes sporty shorts, slippers, and her usual tribal jewelry. And nothing much else really.

Noelle saw Beatrice entering the kitchen, and promptly smiled and wavered "Oh, hello, you must be th..." but she was interrupted by her reflexes, pulling a stainless steel tray and shielding her face against a laser beam fired from Beatrice's eyes.

The beam reflected and punched a hole in the kitchen roof.

With a not-so-quick reaction, Wolfgang tackled Beatrice into the ground.

"WHAT THE HELL BEA?!" Dora shouted desperate.

"THEY ARE KILLERS! MONSTERS!" Beatrice shouted back.

"What? Look, I'm okay if you're Vegan or something, we can still be friends!" Noelle tried to apologize, still hidden behind the tray.

"SHUT UP!" Beatrice spit.

"WOLF, TAKE HER AWAY, PLEASE!" Dora pleaded.

With effort, Wolfgang rolled Beatrice to be between her and Noelle, and dragged himslef with her away, trying to stand up and move Beatrice more easily.

As he did the hard work, Dora rushed to see if Noelle was alright, if Beatrice had hurt her.

"Are you hurt? Did she hit you?" Dora asked.

"No, I'm alright, thanks" Noelle answered, putting away the tray "The roof cannot say the same tho".

Dora looked at it, troubled "Well, the Program will cover this. I hope. And I also hope in don't rain until they do so" she said "But more importantly, are you sure? What exactly happened?".

* * *

Wolfgang kicked open the door of Beatrice's room, carrying her, belly on his shoulder, than he threw her on her bed and closed the door behind himself.

"JUST WHAT THE ACCTUAL FUCK WHERE YOU THINKING?" he screamed at her.

His reaction made her back down. She was still angry, aching for violence, but the thought of breaking all the progress she had made with him was enough to calm her out of berserking rage.

"The Gnoll are mindless beasts! I cannot believe you even let one into your home! They are violent, merciless, cruel!" she ranted.

"Do they fire laser beans at people while they are greeting them?" Wolfgang asked.

Beatrice found hard to come around that question, but she tried anyway "I know I sound like a mindless beast myself, but you don't know them, you never saw what they do to people!".

"Because we both know and agree that our species defines us, right? Just what was I thinking by trying to take you to a place where you would apreciate art? You Beholders are all about duty and glory, and do not have time for that sort of thing right?" Wolfgang hit the sore spot.

The Princess found herself defeated, she was still raging inside, still angry and wishing to burn Noelle into ash, but she couldn't. At best, she would be wrong and only be proving herself to have become the very mindless beast she hates.

"I still dislike this, but ok, you are right. I shall do my best to be civil" Bea answered.

"That's what I like to hear" said Wolfgang, as he walked away and cloesed the door behind himself.

* * *

Later at dinner, the air was so tense that a single spark could blow a fire.

Noelle sat as farther as possible from Beatrice, quietly eating her steak and ham, accompanied by small fish filets, trying her best no to stare, worried, to the Princess.

Beatrice, instead, was doing her best to pretend Noelle simply didn't exist, keeping only one or two tentacle eyes on her at all times.

The twin Doppelganger hosts had no luck trying to figure out the situation. Noelle had not the slightest clue of whatever reason Beatrice had to hate that much on her species.

Beatrice on the other hand, strictly refused to tell a single word on that matter, letting out clues of personal loss when pressed further, but nothing concrete.

The Princess laid in her bed, the pillow covering her head and tentacle eyes, but more importantly, her ears. A clear message, she wouldn't say anything else, it was too painfull.

Wolfgang finally gave up, said her goodnight and left the Princess alone with her thoughts.

"So?" Asked Dora, as her brother left the room.

Noelle stood behind her, aprehensive, eager for Wolfgang's response.

"She won't just say. Whaterver it is, its serious tho. And very personal" he answered, with an apologetic gaze, for both his sister, but foremost for Noelle "It's a pity really. She is not a bad person, and you don't seem to be so, either" he completed, for Noelle.

The Gnoll girl lowered her ears, like a scared puppy, making an equally pityfull sad face.

"Oh..." she said.

"You should get some sleep, Noelle. It was quite a busy day, and I believe you desserve a good night's sleep." Dora said with her hand on Noelle's shoulder.

"Thank you. I believe I should, really" she answered, wagging her tail slowly.

Noelle walked away to her room, leaving the twins alone.

"Well I think I should get a bath now." Said Wolfgang.

Dora held him up "Whoa, not so fast there, Basillia's in her bath now".

"Oh... ok" he said, seeming tired, which was completely understandable "Just call me up when you leave there".

And just like that, he was leaving for his own room, with Dora blushing, but she called to him "Wait, just what you mean 'you', moron? It's she in the bath not me".

"Oh come on, you know as much as I do that you both are taking it slower than you want it" and just like that, and leavind Dora blushing even further, he closed his room's door behind him.

"Idiot, idiot, idiot, idiot" thought Dora "why does he say such a thing, it is too early, we are still knowing each other. She could think wrong if I do this. She could think that that is all I want!" .

"But what if she thinks you are not serious about it?" Wolfgang's voice suddenly sounded in her mind.

Literally in fact, Dora turned back to see his head peeping from his door, like he knew exactly what was going in her head.

Raging almost as much as Beatrice was hours ago, Dora attacked him, only to find the door slammed in her face, as her brother retreated to his room's safety.

She knocked a few times, but then she blushed to the thought that he could be right, actually.

"Damn you, Wolfgang! Why could I not be an only child?" she thought, while walking herself to her own room, where she would prepare herself for bath.

* * *

Basillia bathed herself calmly.

She enjoyed bath, as it was among the few moments that she was aloweed to remove her glassess. She would rejoice in the freedom that was having her face unencumbled.

The hot water in the tub was the best for her. Althogh she was not cold blooded, she certainly enjoyed the heat, that reminded her of the time spent with her family, when everyone would sleep over each other for heat.

The younger ones in the center. Which was, almost everytime, her.

"Hello? Can I get in?" Dora's voice interrupted her thoughts.

It was practically a slenderman's jumpscare, Basillia quickly reached for her glasses and said "It's ok, get in".

The Basillisk girl heard as the door opened up, and she also heard as Dora took unsure stepns in, before closing the door.

"Can you help me? I'm not as used as you are not to see anything" Dora asked.

"... And why is it you're not seeing anything?" Basillia asked, without a clue about Dora's real intention.

"Well, I thought it would be unfair. Making you blindfold yourself just to let me in" Dora replied.

"It's no big deal, really" The Basilisk girl said, still unaware "It's just a quick pee, is it not?".

"Uhn... Not really..." said the Doppelganger, blushing "I was acctually hoping... To bathe with you... If you're ok with that, I mean".

Basillia immediately removed her glasses, but she looked down, as a way to prevent any accidents.

Dora was in a swimsuit. A two-piece dark blue bikini with double straps in both parts, each carefully tied in an, alarmingly easy to undo, knot.

"Are you sure I can look?" Basillia asked one more time.

"As much as you like" Dora replied, goofy and sexy in equal parts.

As Basillia looked, she saw that Dora was wearing swim goggles above cloth, which was how she was blocking her vision, in a very similar way that Basillia herself did, before the Exchange Program gave her more comfortable ones.

Hesitating, Basillia emerged from the tub, and headed towards Dora, to help her get into the bath "Is that your idea of sexyness? Bathing with me blindfolded in a swimsuit?" Basillia teased.

Blushing as hard as Basillia had never seen before, Dora decided to reply boldly "Was the swimsuit too much cloth for you?".

"Nah, it will do. Plus it would be unfair if I got to see you naked, and you couldn't see me" The Basillisk girl kept pushing.

That made Dora aching to take off her glasses, but she couldn't, Basillia's body was there, on display for her, but she would have to sleep on that later.

"Well I believe that you never took a bath blindfolded before, have you?" asked Basillia, as Dora simply replied 'no' with a head shaking.

"What do you say about me guiding you all the way through it?".

* * *

Beatrice was rolling in bed, unable to sleep.

She just could not stop thinking about Noelle. Hating, but also blaming herself.

Even looking at her made the Princess twich in anger, but what if she was wrong? She didn't believed so, she knew the Gnoll race well enough, but what if she was wrong? What if she was judging her too early? Or making judgement that was not in her place to do? Like the Orc Totem.

It was a small part of her that had doubt however. Her anger was just too strong, Beatrice was only minimally aware of how much the hate was clouding her judgement. Not barely enough to make a difference.

Then, in the deep of the night, Beatrice heard a moan.

All tentacle eyes jumped in the direction of the sound, and the Princess soon followed, barely even taking time to be stealthy.

"That was Dora! I know it was! Noelle is attacking her in the middle of the night, I just knew that would happen!" Beatrice thought, the anger manifesting in her eyes, ready to blow up focused lasers to protect her host.

Thankfully, her mind was faster than her body, and she had the idea to use her x-ray vision before bursting into the room, for a better aim.

And as she looked inside Dora's room, she realised how wrong she was about the nature of the moan.

"Holy crap, what did I just almost done?" she thought "I mean, I am not entirely at foult here, never knew that they did that... With that many fingers... But oh, my God..." She felt difficult to avert her eyes from the scene, but she eventually did.

"Well, I guess I must be wrong after all. I should at least be vigilant of course, but..." at that time, Beatrice heard another sound downstairs.

She couldn't quite figure it out, but this time, she used x-ray vision right away.

"What? Just what is she cooking in the middle of the night?" Beatrice asked herself.


	12. Chapter 11 - Lady and the Tramp

Lady and the Tramp

* * *

Carefully, Beatrice descended the stairs, to see what was just going on.

"Just what could her be doing at that time in the middle of the night?" she thought.

While she descended, still looking trough the walls, the figure she saw in the kitchen seemed to take notice of her, raising her ears and quickly covering up what she was doing before hiding behind the counter.

"She is up to something alright" Beatrice thought, nervous.

"What exactly are you doing here in the middle of the night?" she asked.

When she had no response, she added "I can see you behind walls, do not think you are hidden from me for a single second!".

"You acctually can?" asked Noelle, amazed.

The Princess sighed "Of course I can, I am a Beholder. And do not evade the question, what exactly where you doing?".

Noelle blushed on that "Well, can't hide anything from you I suppose, so much for trying to surprise you" she said.

Several of Beatrice's eyes twitched on that "I do not get you, please elaborate".

Noelle scratched her nape, still blushed, and uncovered her work, a bowl of ongoing cake batter "Well, everyone I know loves cake, so, I thought...".

Unlike her vision, Beatrice's nose was as potent as a normal human, so the batter smell just kicked in at that moment, making her belly protest.

"Well, as much as I apreciate the thought, if genuine, of course, I must say that it will change nothing" Beatrice stated, stubborn.

"Well, I guess I can handle you not liking me, if you also don't hate me" Noelle tried, smiling as best as she could.

Still stubborn, Beatrice lifted her nose and left for her room, saying nothing more.

She however, observed Noelle through the walls, baking excitedly through the night, until she finally fell asleep.

* * *

"200 Yen as they take a single week to be in bed together" Wolfgang whispered to his sister.

Blushing, Dora slapped his shoulder "You can't just go shipping everyone together like that!"

"Then what else I would do for a passtime?" he asked "Other than hooking up myself".

"Beatrice is straight, we talked about that already when we got out" said Dora.

"So were you. Or so you thought before you met Momoko on 5th grade" He bounced back.

"Fuck off" she said before she took a sip from her mug and turned away from him, grabbing her girlfriend's hand.

Meanwhile, the Princess watched the early morning anime and cartoons, coddled in the sofa with one of her body pillows, as Noelle occupied herself by replenishing Beatrice's plate of cake when it was emptied.

The Beholder blushed hard every single time Noelle approached her with more cake, but never said her anything, trying and failing to look tough and indifferent.

After setting the Princess to another cake, Noelle got back into the kitchen and helped herself with some bacon and eggs for the breakfast she was also cooking.

With her breakfast in a bowl, she sat at the four-places table, in front of Dora. Noelle was still learning how to properly use Hashis, but she was just able enough.

The way Noelle carried herself kinda fascinated Dora, of all the five days she was in the house, the only times she saw her distressed was upon Agent Smith's appearance in the Dragon Heart Academy, and during Beatrice's outburst, and she even solved that last one all by herself, with cake.

Every day, as she left for work, Noelle was exercising in the front yard, and she never remembered her sitting still for whatever reason other than sleeping, eating or in the bathroom. The house was even cleaner, because Noelle took just any excuse to occupy herself.

And yet, behind the smile aways in her face, she knew Noelle was hiding something. Something that was eating her from the inside.

She never told the story behind her exile, she was about to tell it when Smith showed up, but she never touched on the topic ever again, and aways dissmissed Dora when she asked about it.

"And exile... Something to do with the Chieftan of her tribe..." Dora wandered.

"Sis, you better eat before you get late for work" said Wolf.

"Oh, yes..." Dora fell back into reality, and restarted eating her breakfast.

Dora and Wolf finished their breakfast and left for work, Basillia got upstairs, retreating for her routine of audio books.

Beatrice remained in the couch, watching the cartoons.

And Noelle repressed the tears about to fall into the final bits of her cold breakfast.

* * *

"117" said Noelle, images flushed into her head, the warmth of the sun harrassing her skin as she ran through the savannah alongside her tribemates, dodging the invader centaur's sword, the hot metal of his armor burning as she attacked him.

"118" she said as more images flushed into her head, she and her childhood friends playing with each other, bitting and scratching in the dirt, all one over the other, no one could tell where one started and the other ended.

"119" She and her best friend Gnara take down their first prey, blood is all over the place, they are soaked in red, but they laugh, they laugh as they complete their dream of coming into adulthood together.

"120" The Hunter enters the hut, taking with him the Chieftain's necklace, covered in blood. He solemnly approaches Gnara, and as the first tears roll trought her face, he hails her the new Chieftain, anouncing Gnara's father death. And after this, Gnara lookes at Noelle, gasps for air, and repressed her tears, not looking on Noelle's gaze again, and even more devasted inside.

"Isn't that enough presses for the morning?" Asked the voice of Basillia, kicking Noelle out of the thoughts that even the exercises where failing to keep away.

Frightened, Noelle stopped, and quickly stood up, as she could acctually use a break "Oh, hello, I'm sorry I didn't see you there..." she said uncomfortable.

"Oh, that's ok, really" Said Basillia, as she sat on the stairs just outside the door "You know, you could talk to us. I not trying to force anything or whatever, but something is clearly bothering you. Dora and I have been through a lot of stuff so, we may understad, or even if we don't, you are living here with us so, we will do what we can to support you".

Noelle smiled, finishing a small sip of her bottle of water and using some to wash the excess of sweat off her body "You have been too good for me already, you took me in, you gave me a roof over my head, and things to do to empty it" she said "besides food, I need nothing else, really" Noelle cleaned herself with a towel, her neck, her armpits, between her breasts "Well, that and to forget. If I don't forget, well... I'll never be ok again".

Noelle sat in the side by Basillia, drinking a longer gulp of water.

Basillia thought about what she heard. Noelle's heartbeat was accellerated from the exercises, so she couldn't really know how nervous she was. She settled for a more neutral answer, one she hoped it would help, whatever happened to Noelle "We have to make ourselves at peace we the past. Trying to forget only hurts us even further than what we already where".

Noelle smiled, gloomily "Yeah. I know that".

Basillia heard Noelle's heartbeat drop, like the raw amount of angst could make her heart stop.

"Relax Basillia, you didn't make it worse or anything. It's just that I have to keep it out of my mind, if I do that I'll be ok, right?".

Basillia faced her way, even tho she couldn't really see her "Well guess I'll have to contend with letting you do my loundry then, right?" she laughed, weakly.

Noelle laughed as well "Yeah, like hell Dora will let me anywhere near your panties".

Basillia then finished laughing and stood up "Well I guess I will not meddle in your training routine anymore, I better get upstairs".

"It's ok" said Noelle.

Just as Basillia got up, and went inside, Beatrice appeared at the door.

"Hey, is that where you have been all this time? I demand that you bake more of those delicious cake" the Princess ordered, solemnly.

Noelle looked straight at her, up and down, and said "Oh no, no cake for the Princess until she exercises, we can't have you going out of shape, and that will go fast at the rate you are wolfing my cakes down".

Beatrice instantly blushed "How dare you?!".

"Come on, get down here, let us see, how many presses can you make" said Noelle, taking her hand and pulling her.

"Get off me, you mutton!"said Beatrice, backing away.

"You want cake or you don't?" asked Noelle, with her hands to her hips and an evil grin.

"I do!" said Beatrice, vexed.

"Than do it" said Noelle.

"I will not get into the ground!" she insisted.

Noelle crossed her arms, but the Princess just made an annoyed sound.

Noelle quickly thought about it, and then had an idea "Wanna do something stupid?".

* * *

When she first laid eyes on Beatrice, Noelle never imagined the princess being afraid of anything at all really.

Watching her tremble upon a nearing cart of cotton-candy, was indeed a sight to see.

"No one will even recognize you, Princess, everyone just assumes you are on work or that you already finished your homestay and you are supposed to be there, relax" whispered Noelle.

"They do so with Kobolds, Lizardfolk and whatever other common liminals. You do realize, that we are the only representants of our respective races currently in japanese soil, right? In my case, the only one anywhere in the world, other than Beholder territorry" the Princess retorted.

"What? Do you think every single preschooler in the park has a Masters Degree on Liminal biology, so that just to look at us they will know our species and how many are there is in the country?" Noelle ironized, with a small grin.

"You say all those things and tells me to be relaxed, but you where caught yourself!" Beatrice reminded, related to the failed attempt of getting a job at the Dragon Heart Academy.

"Entirely different, I was under direct supervision of a government organization, whose sole purpose is to know all those things and deal with them" Noelle explained "Now however, we where supposed to be under Dora's supervision, and the government is surely not watching us, if they could do so, they wouldn't delegate that job to the normal folk".

"They can't supervise every single liminal in the country, sure, but the one Princess of a potentially hostile, almighty liminal race?" said Beatrice.

Noelle conceded a nod "You do have a point, but they are still not".

"And how is it, you are so sure?" Beatrice asked.

"Elementary, if they did, they would have tackled me into the ground as we turned the corner, lead us back into the house and called Dora immediately for a interrogation regarding her responsability" Noelle said.

"And there is also that, Dora will be in trouble if we get caught" Beatrice realized.

"I did said it was stupid" Noelle agreed.

"Oh, by the Eyes of God..." prayed Beatrice, in desperation.

Why exactly she had agreed with this? She could not remember.

"Damn mutton, and damn her delicious cake" she thought.

"Cheer up, I'll buy you cotton candy, you exercise at the park, we get back home in two or three hours and not a single soul will know about it" said Noelle, approaching the cart.

While Noelle stood in line for the cart, Beatrice remained away, still terrified of the situation.

As she buried herself in negative thought, she suddenly felt a soft pull in her skirt.

As she looked, she saw a small Kobold child, in preschooler age, looking awkardly to her.

Beatrice stood in shock, unknowing of what to do.

"Miss, can you help me? Please?" the child looked about to cry.

Beatrice's mouth gagged for a second, unsure of an answer "W-what do you mean? What happened?".

"I got lost from my brother" said the child, with tears in her eyes.

Beatrice simply could not react, she was terrified as she had never been before "I, I do not know, but I will try..."

The child let loose of her skirt, with the tears in tight held.

At that very moment, Noelle came back with the contton candies, and looked, puzzled, at the scene "Princess? What's going on?".

"That child is lost, and wants help to get back to his brother" said Beatrice.

Noelle looked serious for a second, she gave a cotton candy to Bea, and then she lowed herself into the eyeline of the child, smiled, and said "Calm down, alright? We're gonna find your brother, ok? Want some cotton candy?".

The child nodded slowly, and then he took a pinch of cotton candy, and started to chew it awkwrdly.

"Ok" continued Noelle "Now two things, do you have something of his? Like any object at all that can have his smell?".

The child pulled his backpack up front and took a baseball out of it "It is his" he said.

Noelle took it and immediatelly smelled it thoroughly.

"And where is it, you last saw him?" Noelle asked as she gave the baseball back.

"Up there, near the bathrooms" he pointed.

"Can you take us there?" she asked.

He nodded again, and started moving, looking back to see if the girls would follow him".

Beatrice hesitated for a second, but her resistance was quelled as Noelle grabbed her hand and pulled her the child's way.


	13. Chapter 12 - A Scary Turn of Events

A Scary Turn of Events

* * *

Noelle reached the bathrooms just behind the little kobold child, already dead serious.

"Here Lady, we got in the bathroom, but when I finished he was gone!" said the child.

Noelle nodded, and immediatelly started tracking. She closed her eyes, as she would aways do in the wilds, the wind flapping the leaves in the threes, and the grass helped, if it wasn't nearly winter and the air was mildly cold, she would feel back in the savannah, with her hunt pack behind her. Her eyes filled in with tears, but she smiled, as she caught the scent.

She held herself back not to simply crouch and go into chase position, making use of her long and strong legs and arms to run in all four legs, for the burst speed. She simply walked, following the smell carefully.

Hesitating, the child and Beatrice quickly glanced at each other, and the child grabbed Beatrice's hand, and the Princess guided him allong the Gnoll.

Noelle quickly strolled through the field, until she got in a more arborized part of the park, heading in a quiet patch of trees.

Just as she walked in, her fur immediately stir up, and she held herself not to instinctively growl treatingly, stacking in place with a heavy breath.

Beatrice was about to ask why she stopped, but she raised her hand, telling her to stop "Get help right now, keep the kid safe, don't go after me, no metter what, and don't look through the threes".

Beatrice hesiteted, in fear "But what is going on..." but Noelle interrupted in a tone of urgency, without moving her eyes from the danger's direction "Don't question me, just go!".

Still terrified, Beatrice grabbed the hand of the boy, who seemed just about to cry, and left as Noelle deepened herself into the small woods.

But she didn't comply to all of Noelle's orders, she looked back, and she saw what waited Noelle, a shady figuere, leaned over a body, multiple sharp tools scattered around the ground near them.

* * *

Noelle aproched as quickly as she could, the bloodturning smell of blood, tickling her nose. "The smell of blood is weak, I can still do something".

Unfortunetely, whoever it was, stopped what was doing and quickly raised and turned to flee. Upon her hunting instincts, Noelle jumped through the attacked person and tackled the figure intro the ground.

With incredible instincts as well, the figure landed in all four legs and used the shock to re-balance and throw itself into a tree, opening up a chance for escape.

But Noelle knew what she was doing, she quickly recovered and chased in all fours as well, attacking the figure.

As she tackled the figure the second time, she felt an excruciating pain in the leg.

The figure turned into her, a liminal woman with lupine features, black hair and olive skin, with a weird egiptian cross tatoo in her forehead.

"You'll regret this!" said the woman.

Noelle was dizzy, her strenght was failing, she looked down and saw a snake, with the fangs buried in her, and the snake apeared to be going out of the lupine woman's back waist.

She tried to fight back, bitting and scratching, but the woman dominated her as the poison sapped her strenght.

"No one can stop the ultimate judgement!" The woman said as she opened a maw, ready to bite Noelle in the neck as she tried weakly to fight back.

* * *

Beatrice ran back to the mainstream part of the park, and she couldn't be more surprised than to see Yoko, Wolfgang's friend, strolling around the park with a girl, seemingly in a date.

"Yoko, please!" She immediately pleaded.

Yoko and the girl understandably went to shock, as the Princess approached with a little kid.

"Princess? What the fuck, what is..." but she interrupted "There is no time, this kid got lost from his brother and me and Noelle tried to to help but they are in danger, please you have to help us!".

Shocked, but serious, Yoko grabbed her date's hand and said "Come". The girl, tho as terrified as Yoko, nodded and followed.

"Why did you not stay to help her?" asked Yoko.

"She told me not to, ok? And I couldn't leave the kid alone".

"Just who are these people?" Asked the girl dating Yoko.

"Not now, I'll just explain later" She replied.

They delved into the small woods, and Beatrice held herself back, holding the kid as she saw the scene ahead.

"She's being attacked" she panicked as she stopped running.

Yoko in the other hand took the lead as soon as she saw it, she ran up to the fighting duo, and promplty greeted the attacking woman with a full charged kick in the ribs from the run.

The woman rolled out coughing, as Noelle loosened herself in the ground.

The girl who was with Yoko turned to attend to the young man in the ground, and Yoko turned her attention to Noelle, but the woman raised herself, meaning to attack again.

Yoko meaned to grab a log from the ground and beat her, but the woman ripped the log apart with a swing of her claws, unbalancing Yoko, who fell into her back.

"GO AWAY!" Beatrice yelled, as, unconsciously she shot a beam of energy from her main eye.

The shot passed close to the woman's head, and for the first time, fear crossed her face, and she ran up again, as Yoko raised herself "HEY, COME BACK HERE!" but then she gave up as she saw the speed in which she left.

Beatrice backed up on a tree, crying.

The small kobold child, long in tears, stood up and slowly walked in the direction of his brother.

Thankfully he had only superficial cuts, most notably one who looked painfully like the begginning of an attempt to open his chest up.

The girl in a date with Yoko was looking up to his wounds "Don't be scared, he will be ok, the bad person didn't had time to hurt him" and she reached him with her hand when he wouldn't stop sobbing "Come, he is fine, just sleeping, see?".

When, the boy felt the increasing breath of his brother, and the heart beating, apparently normal, he hugged him sobbing even more as the girl petted him in the head "Bobby, Bobby..." he said to his brother.

"Haruka, that one is not that ok, you better call an ambulance" said Yoko.

* * *

Noelle blacked out several times, she saw great comotion, she would see Beatrice sobbing, Agent Smith and the MON, arguing with Agent Weaving and a liminal girl she didn't recognized.

Then she saw herself back into the tribe, clear as day, only that it was night, she was laid in by the campfire, the tents disposed around it, as customary of the tribe, and the whole tribe slept. Except for her, and Gnara, who sat by her side, wearing the chieftan's garment, the lion bone and fur clothing mixing up with Gnara's own fur and hair, the necklace weighing in her chest, covering her beautiful cleavage with the weight of responsability.

"Why am I here?" Noelle said, trying to stand up, but her head was too heavy.

"Good to see you too, love" Gnara said bitterly.

That words hurt Noelle, but she didn't gave up "Stop it, you know I did it for you, everyone in the tribe knows".

Gnara looked at her sadly "I don't want to give up on you".

"You have to, you can't be a leader with me around, I went as far as I did for you, you have to respect that".

Gnara looked at her gloomly, and then she closed in and leaned up on her, as if she would kiss her "I don't have to do anything. You know very well that no one tells me what to do".

Noelle lifted a finger between their lips, craving the kiss maybe even more than her "I just did. I made you exile me, I would get in between you and the greater good of the tribe one time or another Gnara".

The Chieftain backed out and turned her back on Noelle.

"I couldn't have you chose between me and the tribe, they would never forgive you if you chose me."

"Bullshit, I would find a way" she said.

"Why can't you understand that I did it because I love you?".

Noelle found herself awaken in a hospital room, a needle in her arm, and a pouch of medicine hanging just above her head, and the girl who saved her from the snake tailed girl blushed, looking straight into her eyes.

* * *

Beatrice cried almost the hole time, the ambulance quickly arrived just along the kobolds parents, and two limosines.

From one, Agent Smith and a group of liminal girls in yellow combat suits descended into the scene.

From the other, Agent Weaving and a blond liminal girl with feline eyes and ears, but a scorpion tail descended.

"This is STER territory Smith, MON has no business here" said Weaving.

Smith looked treatningly to Weaving "Careful Weaving, your division is still in probation".

"Doesn't change that MON is a shock troop, you are clearly late for that, just step down and let me point you in the right direction" retorted him.

Smith gave him a maliscious smile and said "Well, you did got me there, but just remember our positions".

And so, Smith took the MON squad back into the limo, some looking happy for the brief time off.

Weaving scratched his head, troubled, and then he went to speak to one of the ambulance drivers, just as they where taking the Kobold boy up.

Meanwhile, the scorpion tailed girl went to talk to Beatrice.

"Hello, I'm Agent Tiki Mangrove, sorry to trouble you miss, but may I ask you some questions about what happened? If it is no trouble" she asked with a harsh voice, Beatrice supposed to be a trait of her species.

Beatrice quickly tried to dry her many eyes, and come up to talk without sobbing "Yes, it's ok".

"Ok, what exactly happened? In the fullest possible detail" the agent asked readily holding her notebook and pen to take on notes.

Beatrice sobbed weakly all through the begginning of the story as she was interrupted by Weaving.

"Enough Tiki, I'm her coordinator, and I'm in the need to have a little conversation with her as well. Please go collect evidence if you don't mind" he said.

Tiki then quickly removed the page where she took notes, and gave it to her boss, leaving for the scene, but not before giving Bea a quick reassuring tap on the shoulder and a solidary glance.

Weaving then approached the Beatrice, hands behind the back "You do know that what you did here is insanely grave, don't you?" he asked "You do understand that, if you where harmed, it could have meant na invasion?".

Beatrice nodded, understanding maybe even more than Weaving himself.

"Smith will want my head in a silver plate along Noelle's for that, but I'll ease up on you. Noelle would go from the hospital to a plane back to Africa otherwise, and you are also lucky to be royalty, or I would not be able to safeguard you both".

Beatrice flinched to every word. Nodding at the end with a face full of guilt.

If the situation was not as dire, Weaving would be happy to subdue the pompous Princess who disregarded him so much before.

Convenently, Dora arrived at that exact moment in a taxi, still wearing her work uniform from the paper factory she worked on, almosr tripping as she jumped off the backseat with wobbly legs and an unnatural tone of pale in her face.

Beatrice raised herself, crying when she saw Dora, who upfrontly hugged the Princess tight.

"What happened? I was at work and then I just recieved a call saying that you were attacked? Are you ok?" Dora released Bea from the hug and before she could hava na answer, she added "Where is Noelle? How is she?".

"Beatrice is unharmed, but we cannot say the same for Noelle" said Weaving "She was bitten in the leg by an Orthrus' snake tail, thankfully Gnoll are resistant to paralyzing toxines, which happens to be the case".

"I don't understand" Said Dora "Why where you even out here? You should be home".

"Precisely" said Weaving, staring Beatrice down "Would you care to explain?".

The Beholder girl looked down with all of her myriad of eyes, not bearing to sustain either look "It is stupid really, Noelle said she would not bake for me anymore if I didn't exercise and... I was too pround and stubborn to get in the ground to do it, so she took us out to the park...".

The incredulity in both Dora and Weaving's face was priceless.

"And you where attacked..." said Dora, the fear of the punishment already closing her throat.

"However fortunate it was that you where out, I cannot let this go fully unpassed" said Weaving.

" 'Fortunate'?" asked Dora, offended, but Weaving raised a hand, so he can finish.

"You too will for full three months, be forbidden for leaving the house, even you, little Princess, I'll write to your father myself and deal with the pollitical fallout if need be, warning him that any further lawbreaking will result in deportion. Also, the government funds to mantain you both will be suspended for that three months, keeping only the bare minimum for food and hygiene" both the girls flinched to that, keeping the two girls would be way more expensive for that while, no more cake for Beatrice anyway.

"Also, you should know Dora, that I said 'fortunate' because Noelle's injury was resulted of her saving the life of a young Kobold" completed Weaving.

Dora's eyes goggled at that moment "What?!".

"While we where at the park, a kid Kobold approached me" said Beatrice "he said that he was lost from his brother, so Noelle and I helped him, and Noelle finded him".

"With that Orthrus person" deduced Dora.

"Yes, and then she... She told me to run, to call for help" said Beatrice.

"That Orthrus character is a wanted criminal. I cannot share details of the ongoing investigation, but she is quite ellusive, and very dangerous, a pain in our sides for long already" said Weaving "I in fact was put in the command of my own task force, created with the sole purpose of chasing her and any possible similar criminals that may appear".

Dora was terrified to hear that, and Beatrice even more so "It is extremely fortunate that there was no deaths, let alone that no one even was severely hurt" finished Weaving.

The Princess held Dora's hand tight, seeking protection.

"The Princess of the most powerfull liminal race in the world is holding my hand for fear" Dora silently realized with a chill running down her spine.

* * *

*chapter epilogue*

Wolfgang sat at the bench, just outside the room where Noelle was been kept.

He was sleepy, nothing to do, late in the night in the hospital. His phone ringed every now and then – girls who matched him in tinder trying to talk, for sure, but he was not in the mood for that.

Suddenly, he acknowleged the presence of a familiar face.

"Yoko" he said as he raised up.

"Hey Wolf" she replied.

"I heard you where there when the girls where attacked" he said.

"Yeah" she answered shyly "It was damn scary... I was in a date there, guess it was Lucky that I have a nurse fetish" she said, not laughing at her own joke "I just came to see if she is ok, seemed pretty bad there, if I didn't have to get Haruka home, I could have staid and came to the hospital with Dora".

"It's ok, I got here after I finish the work, so she and Beatrice could get home to rest, they say that they are just annalyzing some exams and waiting Noelle to wake up, and then she can leave" explained Wolf.

"Oh that's great" she said, then she kept on after a pause "May I get in?".

"Oh, I think so" said Wolf "The door should be open".

"Thanks" said Yoko with a weak smile as she opened the door and reached for the chair right next to the bed.


	14. Chapter 13 - The New Big Sis-STER

The New Big Sis-STER

* * *

"I don't really know what to say, I'm just happy that I was there for him" said Noelle on the phone "Oh no, I can't accept that, please, knowing that he is ok is more than enough compensation, I can't take advantage of an emotional moment like that, I just did the right thing that everyone should do in my place... No, I thank you for your kindness Mr. Kopola, it warms my heart hearing about your relief and knowing that Bobby is ok... Bless you as well" and then she finally hung up, leaving the phone in the counter, as she raised herself painfully with the crutch's help.

"You even recieve Thanks Calls now, a real hero, that girl living with us, ladies and ladies" Said Wolfgang.

"Oh, you stop. Pass me the bacon" said as she sat heself at the dinner table still holding the crutch in one arm.

Wolfgang grabbed a small bowl filled with cubes of delightfull meat, which Noelle reached with one hand and turned it over in her mouth, chomping it like a squirrel keeping nuts in the cheeks.

"Whoa carnivore, you take it slow with the bacon" said Wolfgang.

"It is too much of a fatty meat, it will be bad for your health to chomp all of that down at once" Said Dora.

Noelle made a guilty face "I'm just anxious. This damn bite made my leg prety darn useless for a while, I can't do anything".

"You can aways watch TV with Beatrice" said Basillia.

"Did you acctually watched anything with her?" whispered the Gnoll "All morning cartoons and reality TV teenage drama, how is that suppose to occupy my time other than make me cringe?".

"Oh, come on, Oni Day At A Time is not that bad" said Wolfgang with a devious smile.

"What are you comparing it to? Dora the Explorer?" Noelle whispered, furious.

"Oh, please don't say that name in front of me ever again" Said Dora reliving her childhood trumas.

Fortunately for her, the doorbell ringed just at that moment and Dora gladly took the opporunity to take her mind away from her nightmares.

As she opens the door, she is surprised to see not only Agent Weaving but also the detective girl who accompanied him in the investigation the day earlier, plus a backpack and a wheel case.

Differently from the previous day, the detective was not in detective clothes, but a casual green crochet cap, made to accomodate her feline ears, a white, fur necked jacket, jean pants and high heel leather boots.

"Hello Dora, how are you in this day?" said Weaving, smiling.

Dora's expression immediately stiffened.

She looked at the girl's face and said "Do you have any problem with humidity? The spare rooms are getting scarce, one of the few left is just bellow the bathroom".

"Bellow the bathroom is fine, thanks" the girl said.

"Is it that obvious?" asked Weaving.

"You shut your mouth" she snarks at him, and then she keeps on with the girl "Name? Anything else I should know?".

"Tiki Mangrove, I'm a Manticore, so jumpscaring me is not good for your health, since, scorpion tail plus feline reflexes, and apart from that, I'm a member of the STER task group, and my job here is basically protect you from any revenge attack from Anubis. And also watch over, so that your naughty girls don't slip away that easily anymore" the girl answers.

That acctually shocked Dora "I thought you were just in need of a host and Weaving just pushed you into me, because I theorectically owe him".

"And you 'theorectically' do" point Weaving, doing the quoatation marks with his fingers.

"Oh no, nothing like that, I finished my homestay about a year ago. It is just a safety matter really" and she keeps on whispering "I know better than anyone that young liminal girls with boiling hormones are a pain to keep in line" at last she winks with complicity.

Dora nods agreeing "Well, good sense and security are never too much around here. Welcome, get in" she said signaling her inside the house.

"Bye, boss" Tiki says as she walks in the house and Dora closes the door behind.

As Tiki reached down to take off her boots before passing through the entrance corridor, and Dora shouted to warn the other house residentes "Everyone to the living room for a bit, please!".

Soon, Basillia, Wolfgang and Noelle appeared at the living room, Wolf helping Noelle out to move faster.

Wolfgang quickly stated with a smile "Whoa, the Exchange Program coordinator strikes again, yeah? Don't mind much since you're so cute tho".

"Weaving warned me about you, but he made it look like it would be a problem having you flirt with me" she said.

"Is it?" He asked.

"We'll see about that".

"Come on Casanova, don't do to her what I did to bacon. Let's have her name first, right?" said Noelle.

"Tiki Mangrove, Detective, Spy, and temporary Bodyguard, at your service" she plays along, bowing exageratedly and taking the hat off for dramatic effect.

"I like you already" said Noelle.

"An honor, but we're missing a Royal Presence here, if I'm not mistaken?" she says, looking deviously, back at Dora.

With a shiver descending down her spine, Dora quickly explains "Oh, she is just upstairs, don't worry!" and she runs up the stairs straight into Beatrice's room.

She almost tripped, but she reached the door and openes it.

"Bea, come down a sec..." She stopped as she saw the Princess' room empty of her, and the strongest shiver yet ran down her spine.

She hesitated, but two seconds later she screamed "BEATRICE!".

"Here, I am here, in your father's room" a voice came from behind her.

Relief flooded her body, making her head spin on dizzyness.

Dora reached for her father's room, where she found Beatrice sitting along her father "Don't scare me off like that Bea, I thought you had vanished again, or some sort of thing like that".

"Sorry, I was just speaking to Mr. Akira" the Beholder girl answered appologetically.

"No, I should be sorry, still kinda freaked out by yesterday" Dora apologized as well "Anyway, you should come downstairs, we have a new homestay. I'll come indtroduce her to you as well soon, ok Father? She's a Detective, you'll like her".

Mr. Akira immediatelly blinked the message "Ok, sweetie. Will be waiting", Dora blew him a kiss and left with Beatrice.

* * *

"Oh, so there you are! I'd hate to have to denouce a security failure barely and hour in here. What was that screaming about anyway?" Said Tiki, conserned.

"Oh nothing, I was just not where Dora expected me to be, and she panicked" said the Princess.

Tiki laughed "Makes sense I guess".

Dora blushed at the statement, but she kept on herself "Well you two already know each other I presume. You can recognize her without all the sobbing, I hope?" she teased, which granted her a punch in the shoulder "Well, Tiki, we were just at the middle of dinner, so, what say you? In for some food?" she completed.

"Well, we Manticores do have a say, of the three true ways to know a person, to spill blood, and food scrapes, so yeah, I accept that" the Manticore says.

"Those are two ways" says Wolfgang.

"Well observed Sherlock, I might enlist you to be my assistant" she told with with a snarky smile.

"No, really whats the third?" he asks with a raised eyebrow and an interested smile.

Tiki gets her turn to raise her eyebrow at him, she slowly walks up to him, looks him up and down and then stares him deep in the eyes, touching his chin with a claw, dubiously "The third one is more personal than the other two, but work your way and we might just spill that too" and then she finished walking away into the kitchen and sitting over in one of the chairs, buttressing her packs on her laps.

Wolfgang was left with a blushed smile, Dora with an uncomfortable smile and Noelle went back to the kitchen, a hand over her mouth "Well, guess that being cooked in her for months will be anything but boring".

Basillia also got back to the kitchen, tapped Wolf in the shoulder and said "She's too much woman for you".

But in the background, Beatrice's eyes where practically bubbling with rage.

* * *

Dora took in some extra chairs, so that everyone could sit and talk at the table.

Everyone sat down the table, excited and eagerly waiting for the chance to ask their questions and get to know that new and charismatic figure a little better. Except Beatrice, but she was there anyway. Observing, a thing she is good at.

First of all, upon making the table, Dora asked "So, Tiki, what would you like to have for dinner?".

"Well, I like anything with fish really. I'd ask for bacon or something if I could, but the STER nutritionist would have my head for that" she said.

"You guys have a nutritionist?" asked Basillia.

"Oh, you bet we do. Normally we are aways traveling, collecting clues for the attacks, trying to be one step ahead of Anubis. That is costly, everything must be done so that we be in top shape and do everything possible to get her" Tiki explained.

"So the attacker's name is Anubis?" Asked Wolfgang.

"She calls herself that, yes" she answered.

"What do you mean? You don't know who she is, really?" asked Beatrice.

Tiki straightened her cap, with an embarrassed expression. "I'll tell you what I can without breaking the protocol, but we know prescious little about her. We keep track of all possible liminals currently in the country, of course, expecially the rarer ones, such as the Orthrus. However... We have no idea of who Anubis might be".

That caused shock around the table.

"All registred Orthrus in Japan have their locations known to the government, most are in their homestay, so they couldn't be Anubis, and there was only one possible suspect, already with a finished homestay, when it was discovered that the attacker was an Orthrus" said Tiki.

" 'Were', meaning that now there is more?" Asked Noelle.

"No, 'were', meaning that now there is none. It is as it sounds, just as we discovered and went to question the girl, we found her body. Anubis' work, no question" said Tiki "It is almost like she had a spy inside the government. That was when STER was created, all previously involved agents were taken off the case and Weaving was chosen to assemble a team. We even work separetedly, not only to cover more ground, but also to keep that sort of leaks from happening again".

"... Wow" finally said Wolfgang, after some seconds of silence.

"But the situation could be a lot worse. We already stopped her attacks before, sometimes, but just never managed to get to her. You were really lucky, but it is certainly impressive too" said Tiki.

"One question" Said Basillia "I've heard of the MON force before, but I've never heard of the STER".

"Thank you, that means we're doing our job correctly then" Said Tiki with a smile "MON are like cops, day-to-day, common crime fight, for day-to-day, common criminals, every country has a police force. But every country also has those nasty, real rotten apples. Serial Killers. I think that only being needed now is a win, considering how savage some liminal coutures are, some say things took their time to go south. Anubis is fortunatelly my only current source of things to do at the job. STER stands for Secret Tracking Extraspecies Response, and that is what we do, lurk in the shadows, to find the criminals there".

Noelle scratched her chin for a second and asked "Anubis isn't like, because of the egyptian god, is it? She had an egyptian cross in the forehead".

"It is, acctually, ancient egyptian religion has everything to to with Anubis. I can't really SAY it, but the name is not just for show, you see, one of the defining things about a Serial Killer is the method, and let's say that if you know what Anubis, which is the egyptian god of mummification, does to the souls of peaple who go in the afterlife, you get a clear sight of what our Anubis, the Serial Killer, does the victims. It is not pretty, the boy was very lucky that you found him when you did" explained Tiki "I'm acctually surprised that you know about mithology, Noelle, thought you lived isolated with your tribe, before".

"With my tribe, yes, but not really isolated, we lived as nomads in the savannah, but there's no helping to find civilization, be it human or liminal" said Noelle.

"I see" said Tiki "But let's not talk that much of gloomy things, pelase, my job is stressful enough as it is".

"Indeed I'd like to talk of better things with you" stated Wolfgang.

"That seems gloomy if you ask me" whispered Beatrice, bitterly.

"Is he aways like that?" Tiki asked Dora.

"Oh, pray you never trip over his unlocked phone, especially with Tinder open, there are nasty things waiting for you there" answered Dora.

"Oh, is it? That's a shame" she said, as Dora gave her a bowl of fishrolls "Thank you".

Trying not to let himself be intimidated by it, Wolfgang kept the conversation going "So, tell us then, how did you join STER? I mean, why you accepted it?".

"Well, I did something similar back home, you see. Was trained for it at least." Answered Tiki "Manticores have their purpose determined at birth, our priests take us in, and raise us for our role in society. And I was picked to be a Royal Guardian, that is more or less the same thing I do here, only that I don't report directly to the monarch." That last phrase she said with a grin.

"I see, so, I'm supposing that Weaving was your Exchange Program Coordinator, and as such, knew about that, making you an obvious choice for the job" guessed Basillia.

"Precisely" confirmed Tiki, just upon taking a bite to one of the fishrolls.

"Well, that's how you got in, but you didn't tell us why" said Noelle "I would think that you left your people for a reason, and doing the same job here that you did there, seems odd to me, if you don't mind me saying so. Was it the thrill of chasing them? I'd totally understand if it's that so".

Tiki made more of a sad expression to that "Well kind of. It was getting a little hard for me to find a job, acctually, and I do like to do what I do, so I didn't think twice before accepting it. The reason why I left home and all is a little deeper, I'm rather not talk about that for now, if that's ok...".

"That is also something I can relate to" said Noelle with some sadness mixed in.

* * *

After dinner, Tiki went to bath and Wolfgang offered himself to show her the bathroom, 100% free of second intentions.

However, that was Beatrice's chance to put in motion her latest idea.

As soon as Wolf and Tiki left, Beatrice signaled the rest of the girls, and quickly raised herself and left the kitchen.

"What is it, Bea?" asked Dora.

"Just come!" she said as she ran upstairs.

"Just what is she plotting now?" said Basillia, confused.

"We better go see it, I guess" said Dora, as Noelle whined about having to go upstairs.

As they did so, they bumped into Wolfgang, just leaving the bathroom "Where are you going?" he asked.

"Beatrice called us, she's plotting something" said Dora.

"Oh, cool, I like to plot" said Wolfgang.

"Not you, this is a girls only reunion!" shouted Beatrice from inside her room.

"Oh, well guess I'll just have to stick around..." but Dora interrupted and pushed him by the shoulder to his own room "Oh no, you don't. Get on your room, pervert. Go do your 'likes on Tinder run' thing and leave the new girl alone".

"Mean sister" he said as the door closed behind him.

"Come on! We have to be quick!" yelled Beatrice, seemingly annoyed.

"We're going, just wait" said Dora.

They finally got into the Princess bedroom, and she quickly pushed them into her bed, closing the door behind them.

"What's all this fuss, Bea? Just what are you cooking now?" asked Basillia.

"My ladies, I fear something truly dire is upon us, something that cannot be ignored" said her.

"Oh, my god..." said Noelle.

Bea sat on her bed, crossing her legs, before continuing "Tiki is hiding something, I believe something truly dire. I believe that she did not just showed up for the reason she says".

All the other three girls looked at her, frightened.

"And what would that be?" asked Dora.

"I do not know yet. But I got extremely weird vibes from her, she gives me shivers" said Beatrice, as if that was a perfectly good reason.

Noelle gazed her down, with a growing grin "Your jealous of her and Wolf, right?".

Beatrice's eyes started to literaly glow, ferociously "Sorry?".

"Bea, calm down" said Dora raising her hand.

"I don't know, Tiki sounded strange to me" said Basillia "I'd not go as far as to acuse her of whatever, but she sounded weird for me too, also, I could hear her heartbead accelerated, mostly all the time, she was clearly nervous".

"See! I knew it" said Beatrice, as if that proved her point.

"But I don't think we should do anything about it" said Basillia.

"Wait, what? Why not? You said yourself that you felt something weird about her" said Beatrice.

"And I did, but that can be for any number of reasons, many of which do not mean that Tiki is a bad person, at all" Basillia answered.

"I think you are just jealous, Beatrice. If it wasn't, why would you not want Wolfgang to be here to hear this?" said Noelle, which made Beatrice blush.

"There is also that" agreed Basillia.

"Bea, it's ok, the government wouldn't spare her to stand here if it wasn't to protect us from an attack of Anubis, we'll be fine" said Dora.

"Yeah, if you are jealous, just do your work better, grab Wolfgang for yourself, but don't grudge against her. Love rivalry is the worst, we aways dreaded it back in the tribe, the best way to break families ever, and for the stupidiest reason as well" said Noelle.

"Don't put me through this Noelle, you know that can't work" said Beatrice, turning all of her gazes away from the Gnoll girl.

"Beatrice is still a minor, she can't have a relationship with Wolfgang, you know that" Dora whispered to Noelle.

"She's not gonna be a minor forever, it's just a matter of time" she answered.

Beatrice turned herself in the bed, giving the girls her back "If you are not going to help, get out! I will uncover proof all by myself!".

"Bea, don't make trouble against Tiki" warned Dora.

"Just go!" whined the Princess, without looking back.

Dora sighed.

"Come on Dora, she needs to think" said Basillia, holding her girlfriend's shoulder.

Dora nodded, and the girls left Beatrice to her feelings.

* * *

*chapter epilogue*

Wolfgang was in his underpants, serenely browsing Tinder, as customary "Damn, why can't I take Tiki out of my head? She is smoking hot, but so are many girls I dated, so it can't be that...".

Suddenly, a message popped up in his cellphone screen.

It was Yoko's, reading "Hey!" followed by a gif, showing a cartoon kitten pulling of the pants bar of a human, and soon after, another message "How's Noelle going?".

Wolf smiled, and then another message arrived "And the Princess too. I mean, they must be pretty in shock yet, with everything that happened yesterday" and soon after, another "I'm a little worried about her".

Wolfgang smiled again, in the split-second needed for another message to arrive "Them, I mean them".


	15. Chapter 14 - Party Prepping

Author's Note: Sorry guys, I've not been updating my fic in a while, for very personal reasons that should not bother you while coming in to (hopefully) have fun with my content. So suffice to say, I've not been very well, mentally, but I kinda recovered, so, keeping on with the story. Leave a comment if you will, I really apreciate it.

* * *

Party Prepping

Wolfgang was at home, changing his father's sheets, when Yoko's message arrived on his phone.

He put the sheets under his arm and picked up the phone.

"What do you mean? She can't go out with us, that's why that government agent girl is living with you now, isn't it? *thoughtful face emoji*" She asked.

"Yes it is, so we're gonna do it right here, at my place" He wrote her, looking at his father afterwards "Wish us luck dad, Dora will not like any of this".

* * *

"... Wolfgang, I've heard a lot of you, many times, and many times I questioned your sanity" started Dora "Mom did aways say that american movies would be a bad influence on you, but this?".

"No, no, no, stop right there sis, you know it is not fair to bring Mom into this conversation" Wolfgang said "And also, it will not be like an american teenage party, we have a government agent living here, and there is also you, which is twice as scary. Furthermore, there will not be that much people, we don't know that much people anyway, at least I do not know much people that would be safe to invite home. It is just a theme, like a... Halloween party, or something... Ok, too much american influence, I can see, but you do get me".

Dora looked at him with scruttiny.

"You have second intentions with this. Talk. And they are better be good, or I will not let you" she said.

Wolfgang felt cornered by his sister in a way he hadn't since he took the audacity to steal her Pokémon themed jelly beans. A mistake he didn't made ever again.

"Ok, I'm gonna open my game here. I think Yoko is into Noelle, and since she can't come out, that's how I figured they can maybe have some time together" Although that was not a lie, it was not the whole truth, but even still, Wolfgang hoped it would be enough to bypass his sister's instincts, and get away with getting his own opportunity to make his way with Tiki.

Dora raised her eyebrow, not convinced yet "And why would you want to help her with that? She's your friend, ok, but Noelle also is, and you know Yoko even better than me, you know she'll get over Noelle some time, even if they end up dating after all".

That was an excellent point, to be fair.

"Well that time it does seem different for Yoko, for whatever worth that has" which was also not a lie "But I think it may do well on Noelle's side as well. Short term at least. Ever since she moved here she's been all work and stuff, the one time she tried to do something different, it went as it was. I think she deserves a moment of fun. I'll talk to Yoko, she'll not break the heart of someone so close, and so capable of tearing her guts out in a moment of fury".

Dora processed the information as Wolfgang looked at her, trying not to seem personally aprehensive.

"Well you are lucky our birthday this year is on a saturday, so our neighbors will not be that much upset with the music, at least not if we warn them before" she finally said "And with 'we' I mean 'you'".

* * *

Tiki left her room in her pajamas, scratching her butt while she groggily walked over to the kitchen.

There she found Wolfgang on the phone "No, those won't do. What do you mean 'why?' they don't do, period. Did you ever see those things in american movies? It's gotta be a proper hose, or it loses the point! Kinshi, I think you cana manage that on yourself, it is your ONLY job after all. Ok. Don't screw up" he hung up on the end of this phrase, sighing to himself, and only then he noticed a very curious Tiki, gazing at him.

It was early morning, so most people in the house where either sleeping (Beatrice and Basillia), or doing other stuff, such as Dora's bathing and Noelle doing bars (since she couldn't yet put weight in her leg, she resolved as to work out her arms), and on top of that, Mr Akira's Nurse was scheduled to arrive only hours later, when the twins would leave for work.

That meaned that they where now alone, without worries of someone appearing out of the blue.

Wolfgang's heartbeat accelerated, his instinct was to flirt with her, sieze the opportunity to make an advancement, if only to plant the seed for the party.

However her feline eyes pierced through him, paralyzing his muscles as much as he thought would happen if he was stinged by her scorpion tail, only without the much likely pain.

She smiled, letting loose her point canine "What's that prey look you're giving me, Wolf? What are you up to that you're so frightened I saw?" she asked, amused.

"Oh no, it's just you surprised me, I'm just making preparations for the birthday party I'm throwing for myself and Dora" he proptly answered.

Tiki's smile faded at hearing that "Oh... so when's that going to be?".

"Next saturday night" he answered, now with a shining smile.

"Well guess I'll have to search for a place to be at saturday, then" she said.

It was Wolf's smile turn to fade "What do you mean? You won't stick here for the party?".

Tiki was clearly surprised at that statement "Well, I supposed you guys would not want the government watchdog over in your birthday party, so I'd not like to be there being a hinderance..." she explained, awkwardly.

"What the fuck, why would you be a hinderance? You're our friend now, of course we want you around" Wolfgang blurted out without realy thinking "Maybe I can't talk for Dora really, but I doubt she'd want you to leave, in fact she'll want you to stay as much as me, I'm pretty sure" he finished, adding a little bit for himslef in his thoughts "I'd want it much more than her acctually, but not in a way you should know yet".

"Well, I'm very glad to hear this, not gonna lie" stated Tiki earnestly "Do you need help with the party? Figures if I'm gonna make part of it, and I live here anyway, I should help".

"Oh, no no no no no, you're here to enjoy, to brighten our birthday with your shiny presence, not your work... Ok, maybe to clean up afterwards, but that's it, it's supposed to be a unique and surpriseful experience" Wolfgang told her with a twinkle.

Tiki let out a weak, joyful but timid laugh "I thought it was your birthday, shouldn't it be focused on you guys?".

Wolfgang flinched for a split-second but as fast as he froze, he recomposed and answered back "Of course, but our guests fun are just as important for us then our own. Why even invite anyone in otherwise? I don't see a point".

Tiki laughed more loosely this time "Ok then, Mr Gatsby, I'm really looking foward for the party then, hope it will be all that you're telling me" and just as that, she walked over to the kitchen, much happier with herself than she had been for a long time.

And with Wolfgang supressing the sigh of relief, neither of then realized they were beng observed by a brooding, all-seeing royal presence, at the top of the stairway.

* * *

"Why? o-o You seemed so excited for the weekend, is something wrong? I know we only just talked for a few weeks, but you can tell me if something is off :)" said the girl Yoko was planning to meet.

"Sorry babe, I just got something important here. If it was just something off I'd go anyway, cause I really liked you, but I really will have to be somewhere else this weekend :'( real sorry. Maybe afterwards? I'll text you ^.^" Yoko texted back, knowingly that she wouldn't talk to the girl again.

She waited for a reply, and as an "Ok then" popped into the screen, Yoko closed the HER app, and with a heavy breath, almost threw her phone into the wall, stopping at the last second, and then punching her To Love Ru dakimakura. "WHY CAN'T I JUST GET HER OFF OF MY HEAD?" she yelled at herself, and then calmed down putting a hand on her temples, as if she had a headache.

She then turned her phone back on and looked at the calendar.

"Wolfgang's party will already be this weekend, what should I do?" thought Yoko. She made mention to text Wolfgang, but then she dropped the phone into her bed, turning around from it.

Then after seconds of arguing with herself, she reached back and dialed Wolfgang's number.

"Hey, what's up Yoko? You've never been one to call, what's going on?" he asked, amused with a small hint of concern.

"Nothing much really, just wanted to talk to you... At random topics..." she said.

"Hum... Go on" he replied.

After some seconds of consideration and revising her life choices, Yoko said "So, tell me... Have you ever heard Noelle say something about clothes? What kind she likes and such?... I mean, I've seen Basillia and Beatrice many times and know what kinda things they wear, but I didn't had the chance to talk to Noelle that much, that's all".

"One hundred percent random, I see" he said, with poorly stealthed sarcasm, that only got over Yoko's head because she was so nervous "Well she likes to keep it casual and sporty for the most part, she is aways busy with something, so that helps. No idea how she plans to be at the party tho if that's what you're asking".

"No, no, not at all, I'm just curious. I mean, of course she wouldn't just say what she find sexy out of the blue like that, that would never happen" said Yoko with na awkward laugh.

"No, in fact I think she gave a hint, once..." said Wolfgang, acctually remembering a golden piece of information with a grin.

"WHAT IS IT?... Just for curiosity of course, no interest at all" she quickly added.

Wolfgang supressed a weak laugh, asking himself wheater Yoko was even more obsessed with Noelle than he was with Tiki "Well, Beatrice was watching a fashion reality show those days, and the second place was the stylist that liked to make more punk and dark outrfits, his choice of model was a tomboyish girl with short hair, and Noelle was SO mad that they lost to a summery dress outfit, I thought she and Beatrice would have a true fight in our living room, Dora still has the password blocking the reality show channels of our cable as a punishment."

"Hum I get it, so she likes tomboyish punk stuff" Yoko said, thoughtful "Ok, gotta go" and she hung up immediately, getting up and opening her closet.

"Pretty sure I still have that jacket..." she talked to herself while going through her own clothes.

She then closed her closet and crossed her arms, defeated "Guess I'l have to go shopping..."

* * *

*Epilogue Chapter*

"Yes. Yes. Of course I'll go, I may be old but I'll not miss your birthday, I still enjoy good music, he he... And there is also my homestays, Jack and Tao will be happy to go too" Said Mr Matsumoto.

"Hear that Tao?" asked Jack thought the lollipop in his mouth, while playing videogame from his wheelchair "Are you finally letting your hair down for a party? It would be fun to see that".

Tao Lei was unmoved however, and only when Mr Matsumoto hung up he asked "Where will this party be? If I may ask."

Matsumoto looked at him carefully realizing something "It's the brithday party of two friends of mine, the hosts of the Beholder Princess, that is not going to be a problem will it?".

Tao Lei acctually reacted to this one, surprised and amused "Not at all, it will be quite the opportunity in fact. I'm really looking foward to it".

Jack blurted off, forgetting about the game for a second and dying in it "What? Did you just said what I think you did, or do I have to clean up my ear fins?".

The Ryu-jin Prince, instead of answering, just let out a small smile and kept on to his meditations.


	16. Chapter 15 - Party Start

Party Start

* * *

"Thank you so much for been able to come here to care for our dad while the party is in going, Mrs Hanamura, I know it must been out of hand to come here at a saturday night, but I really appreciate it" thanked Dora, while bowing to the grizzled but kind and warm old lady in a plain and conservative nurse uniform that stood before her at the door.

"Oh, don't mind it. Today Saito is sleeping over at one of his friends house, so I had nothing much to do at home anyway" answered the woman with a smile while going into the living room.

"I had to thank you anyway, Mrs Hanamura, if it wasn't for you..." Dora started, closing the door after her.

"I'd call another nurse from the agency. Don't worry Miss Takeda, I'm here because I want to." The woman cut her off, holding her arm, reassuringly, and then went upstairs to Akira's room.

As Dora heard the old lady closing the door behind her, she let out a sigh, still unsure of Wolfgang's idea for the party.

As she did so, the door slammed open after her, almost hitting her in the back.

She jumped back, terrified of what could it possibly be, the worse possibilities coming into the realm of a shadowy figure with a snake for a tail.

But it was only her stupid brother and his jackass friend Kinshi.

"Oh, Dora, you're here! Do me a favor please and lock the door behind us!" said Wolfgang while passing through her with Kinshi and an enormous sealed jug of what looked to her like to be ethyllic alcohol.

"What the fuck are you bringing into my house?" she asked as they breezed through her as fastest as they could carrying that weight.

"The theme of the party is American Teenage Party so we had to bring in some homebrewed drinks, right?" said Wolf as he and Kinshi gently lowered the jug into the kitchen floor.

"We even got a rubber hose to drink from it, isn't it cool?" asked Kinshi apparently excited at the prospect, and pulling the afore mentined object from his pocket.

Dora looked at them as if they were lunatics.

"No it isn't, why do you get the idea that this is primordial to an american teenage party? Or even that it would be a good idea, no matter the theme" she argued.

"Relax sis, it will be ok, we're all going to be adults at the party, no one we called will do dumb things, it's just a fun activity to try! For the immersion!" said Wolf as he and Kinshi carried the jug around the house in direction of the kitchen.

Dora made mention to object, but she then dropped it, moving a hand to her nose bridge, as if getting the prelude of a headache.

* * *

Hours later, Dora was increasingly becoming aware that, even tho her house was big, it wasn't so big as to accomodate a real party, at least not without it getting cramped up.

They had some friends from school, college and work over, Mr Matsumoto and his homestays, some of the closest young neighbors and Wolfgang's best friends, of course.

All stacked up, made no more thant 30 guests, but the utilitarian house barely held all those people in place, and it didn't help that Wolfgang pulled a big supply of sake out of his hat. The current pop music from the USA rolled in the background, not yet too high, but whispering was no longer a possibility.

She then felt a reasuring clawed hand on her shoulder, and turned back to see Basillia there.

"It will be ok" said her girlfirend "I know I will not be able to do much, because of all of the noise and the music, but I'll be here for you, ok?".

Dora smiled to herself and hugged Basillia tight.

Meanwhile, Wolfgang opened the door for the last arriving guest, which happened to be Yoko.

He hesitated before greeting her tho.

"Sorry, are you a time traveler?" he asked "you most likely recognize me since we're childhood friends, but it seems like you're 15 years old again".

"Fuck you Wolf" Yoko said.

She was looking exactly like her rebel goth phase, in Wolfgang's memory, thus the joke: black makeover, a loose white shirt with two buttons left open, for a mild flash of her modest cleavage, a black loose blazer and a loose tie around her neck, tight black leather pants and leather boots, plus jewelry. She even did her nails black and dyed a strand of har blue.

"Just joking" he said while getting close to hug her welcome, as an excuse to whisper at her ear "What are you doing? You're looking like a troubled teenager, unless Noelle's a pedophile you're not helping yourself here".

"Screw you, that's what you said she liked!" she whispered back.

"You could be subtler!" he said, as the rest of his friends came over to greet Yoko, and Kinshi teased her much more openly than him.

* * *

Meanwhile, just upstairs, a certain princess observed the whole thing. She was mumbling uncoherent stuff in the bathroom while using her x-ray vision to watch over everything.

"Right, this will be it" she said while pulling out a bleach bottle from the innards of the bathroom cabinet "With this, I will make it so Tiki will not be able to stay up in the party! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" she laughed maniacally.

She leaft the bathroom in a hurry, eager to put her own solo plan in motion, but as she opened the door and stepped forth into the corridor, she bumped into someone she didn't noticed, since she was so caught up on the idea.

The bleacher bottle creacked, and a gash erupted, thankfully on the upper part, but it still spilled over her and the person she bumped into.

"WHAT? I am so sorry, I did not meaned to..." she started apologizing until she realized who it where "You".

"Beholder Princess. I had hopes that our reincounter was to be less violent..." said Prince Tao Lei as he looked down at his ruined attire "and drier".

"Argh! Look at this, now my party dress is ruined..." Beatrice said as she started to cry.

"Oh, please don't, here, I can fix it for you" he said.

"Fix it? FIX IT? It is hand made, fitted perfectly for me, for this specific occasion, I had my father's guards deliver to me yesterday!" she yelled at him.

"That is very odd, but never mind, I can still fix it" he said "I can use my chi technique to fix the color and texture, you won't even feel the difference" Tao Lei explained.

"What? You can do that?" the Princess asked, surprised.

"Of course I can" he answered "You just have to take it off somewhere safe and hand it to me so that I can work on it.

Beatrice gazed suspiciously at him with all of her dozens of eyes, which was a little disturbing.

"Ok, but if you do ANYTHING weird while we are there I will flay you alive" she said much more seriously than that phrase would normally sound coming from a teenage girl.

"Ok" said tao Lei while immediately removing his T-shirt.

"What are you doing?" the Princess asked.

"My shirt is wet, it is uncomfortable. You said you were going to flay me alive if I did anything weird while we're there, and I thought you might find me removing clothing weird, so I better do this now, right?" he explained.

It seemed logic to Beatrice, even if it was just a tease.

In more ways than one she quickly realized, now that she started failing to avert her eyes from the Ryu-Jin Prince's abs.

"So? Will you take me somewhere you can undress privatly, or will you just stand there and let people guess what we are doing here?" Tao Lei asked suddenly.

Beatrice immediately blushed "Ok come here" she said taking him to the bathroom, and locking the door behind them.

"I am going to fucking regret this, am I not?" she thought to herself.

* * *

"Come on, ladies and gentleman, come on to the table don't be shy" said Wolfgang, gathering people around the table in which the jug of drinks sat upon "Come on for the next game of the night!" . There were not more than two hours into the party then, and most people had something or another to drink already, except those who don't drink alcohol at all, really.

Yoko, Kinshi, Kana and his girlfirend Harumi were the first ones to join in at the table, and soon Noelle sitted down, followed by Jack, the shark merman that was a homestay to Mr Matsumoto, and a few other school friends of Wolfgang's. One chair was left, and with a grin, Wolfgang put his plan in motion quickly:

"Hey Tiki, come over here please, just a second" he shouted.

Tiki looked at him from the living room, where she was friendly chatting with Dora, Basillia and a few of the neighbours that attended to the party.

"Hey, are you going to crack that jug up now?" she asked.

"Yes sir, we are! And there is a little game for it too, wanna sit down and hear it?" he asked, motioning the empty chair to her.

"I'm in for games!" Tike said as she sat down.

"Step one, complete" noted Wolfgang to himself in his thoughts.

He sat himself down and started to explain "Ok, the game is thruth or dare, but there is a catch. Whoever gets to be asked something tells that the request is easy or hard, if it is easy, the person who asks takes a single shot of drink, if it is hard, it takes three, and we circle around the table for who askes the queation, got it?" said Wolfgang.

"Right, so that we must be careful of who we want to ask the best requests to, and when" observed Kinshi "Cool I like it" he said brushing his hands.

"Alright, game on?" asked Wolfgang, tring hard not to stare as Tiki for too long, so it wouldn't be suspicious.

"Game on!" the table answered in unisson.

* * *

Yoko was already dizzy, even tho she only had done one hard question yet, but she was tanking it like a pro.

Some of the people at the table had left already, including Kana and Harumi, since Harumi's parents wouldn't aprove of her coming back home completely wasted, but Yoko was determined to at least try her luck with Noelle, she didn't drop a date and sent so much time and money to come there and give upon her dreams.

And she wasn't just being dramatical. Not fully.

"Hum, thats a hard one, geez..." said Jack, the shark guy "But ok, I'll do it, just line up your three drinks up miss".

The girl at the other side of the table from him giggled, she was one of Yoko and Wolf's school friends, and she seemed to enjoy Jack a lot, most of her turns were spent on asking him things up to that point.

Jack laid back on his wheelchair, and picked up an olive, putting it over his belly button. He carefullycontracted his belly, without dropping the olive as much as he could, and then suddenly, he bursted out, launching the olive across the table just at the girl's plate.

The whole table cheered in excitement from his feat.

Jack accepted the praised smugly, while the girl took a bite to the olive, with a smile on her face.

"Seems like it is my turn right?" Yoko spoke up.

"Ok, miss darkness, who shall be your next victim?" teased Kinshi.

"Certainly not you" she cut him "Noelle".

The Gnoll girl immediately looked up, curious.

Yoko blushed slightly, but the drinks blush hided it good enough "I have a good one for you" she was taking a huge risk at that, but she was tired, and went all in "Pick a person at the table and kiss that person".

Noelle smiled amused.

"Take your drink first, cause that is easy" she answered, causing a collective "WOOOOOOOA".

Yoko was shocked and hesitated for a second at this, but she took a cup from the table and drinked it.

Noelle immediately rose up from the table, not bothering to grab the crutch, she jumped the two steps between her and Yoko in a single feet, and grabbed Yoko by the neck and shoulders and kissed her.

But not just any kiss, she kissed her GOOD, passionately, with the toungue, and left a small bite gash at Yoko's lower lip at the end.

When they parted from the kiss, Noelle licked her lips and asked "Is that what you wanted?".

Yoko took her time holding herself without fainting, but in seconds she was able to reply "Part of, if I'm really honest".

Noelle did a "tch" and looked over at Wolfgang "I hope we'll not be missed for the rest of the game" and that was not a request of approval, she grabbed the crutch in one hand, and Yoko's waist in the other, and the whole table observed Noelle dragging Yoko upstairs. To her room. Nobedoy saw it, but nobody had to.

* * *

One by one, or two by two, the truth or dare game table emptied, until only Tiki and Wolf remained.

After Yoko, Wolfgang got kinda nervous, and couldn't excecute the plan.

Kinshi left off with what remained of the drinks jug, and Tiki raised up as well.

Wolf thought she was leaving as well, but she sat closer to him "Hell of a game" she said "Full of surprises, but I hoped to leave the table with someone before it ended. Noelle and Yoko seemed like they would have a lot of fun".

"Indeed" said Wolf, dabating to himself on the rest of his phrase "There is still time".

Tiki looked at him suspisciously, but amused "You're intriguing Wolfgang, just what is your game? Everyone said you aways had a girl over, but I've never seen any on all those days here. Don't tell me it is because of me".

Wolfgang was startled "Well no, of course not... Well maybe, but not really I..." Tiki interrupted him.

"I was joking" she said with a weak laugh, which stopped him "But you are clearly not, since someone like you is mumbling over at me, like a teenager..." she rested her forehead on her hand with a weak smile, but it quickly faded into a sad, conserned look.

She spoke before Wolf had the chance to ask why, tho "You're probably impressed by me or something, but you really shouldn't. You should be back to your old routine of pick ups and be happy, not deal with me and my problems. I'd just disapoint you, no matter how high or low your expectations might be" she said "It will be best for everyone, you'd be happier being able to pick up any girl you want, and I'd not broke another heart alongside my own again".

Tiki raised up to leave, but Wolfgang grabbed her by the wrist.

Tike was startled, and her scropion tail lounged at Wolfgang, stopping centimeters from his left eye.

He looked at the sting, aprehensive, but he dind't move, or let go of her.

Tiki retracted her tail, swating cold "Let go of me! Do you even understand what you did? I almost killed you by accident, for that foolishness!".

"Yeah, for your foolishness" Wolfgang answered raising up with her "Look, I'd be fine if you said you didn't like me or whatever, but if you're rejecting me because you think you are protecting me or that you are not worthy or whatever it means that you just said, I'm not gonna let you go. Maybe you don't desserve me, or I don't desserve you, but you desserve to be happy. And you are clearly not happy with whatever it was that the last person you dated with left you for. And I don't know what it is, but I doubt that it will disappoint me if we try something. If you want me at all. I won't let you refuse me because of something like that" he said seriously "And if you think a sting will let you free from this, think again".

"You don't know me" Tiki said.

"We already spilled food scrapes together" Wolfgang answered.

"Don't mock me" Tiki said, threatening to cry "I'm serious, you don't know me".

"Then I'll show you me" said Wolfgang "You will know exactly who I am. Then you can show me who you are, if you like me. And then you will know if I'd like you".

Tiki looked at him puzzled "What do you mean?".

"I have a secret" he said "I wasn't supposed to tell anyone. Only the family, some of the closest of the closest friends, and some homestays know about it. Noelle doesn't know it for example".

Tiki raised her eyebrow "I don't get it".

"You will" said Wolf, walking upstairs, still holding her "I mean, if you trust me to come along".

Tiki looked at him, nervous, but she eventually followed him.

Wolfgang took her to his room, he locked the door behind him, and stood up in front of her. He blushed slightly, but put both his hands cupped in front of his crotch, and let go of his transformation.

His clothes were immediately in the ground, and his elfy, much softer looks, accompanied with the dark skin and silver volumous hair took the place of the movie star like features he chose for a daily facade. He looked up aprehensively with his green eyes, but Tiki didn't showed any reaction, she was just groundless.

"Sou you... and Dora... you're all...?" she asked trying to wrap her head around it.

"No just me and Dora. And our mother as well, when she was alive" he smiled weakly "But dad is human, we lived all our lives in Japan, me and Dora".

"That... Should not be as surprising as it is, I guess" Tiki admitted.

"Maybe" Wolfgang agreed "But that is me. Who I really am. What do you think?".

Tiki put her hands cupped over her mouth, but she closed in "I... Feel that I can trust you. Its very sweet of you risking yourself like that for me... And kinda reckless as well..." Tiki raised her hand to touch Wolfgang in the cheek, aprehensive.

The doppelganger leaned his face against her hand, since he literally had his hands full on other things "I think it is unfair that I'm naked here alone, don't you?" he asked, his flirty tone being the ultimate proof that that was indeed the same Wolfgang.

Tiki's smile faded "Well yeah, I think that's fair..." she answered.

Wolfgangs face lit up, and Tiki started to undress in front of him.

She unbuttoned her pants, and immediately, there was something Wolfgang didn't understood at first.

As Tiki's pants dropped tho, it all became clear, all the reason behind Tiki's insecurity, and that meaningless blabber about diappointment, the volume bellow Tiki's panties were all explanation there was needed.

Tiki stopped undressing, fearful of Wolfgang's reaction, but he smiled.

"I cannot say I understand completely what it is that you're feeling" said Wolfgang extending one and in her direction, almost like asking permition to touch her "But you'll never have to fear anything from me. Not because of this, not because of anything. I love women, and I think that, you are a woman, right? Only you can tell anyone that".

Tiki held her tears at bay, she grabbed Wolfgang's hand, and he hugged her, his hands crossing around to her back, in an embracing way, unlike the sensual hugs he's normally give to his pick-ups, but tenderly, affectionate, welcoming of the whole of Tiki's body, and of her soul, above even that.

She cried at his shoulder, her fingers almost digging into his back, as if afraid that someone would come and drag him away from her, that something could happen to the person who finally disired who she looked like, and accepted who she really was.

She loosened the hug and joined foreheads with him "Can I kiss you?".

"Thought you never ask".

Their kiss was less intense and flashy than Noelle and Yoko's but was longer, thirstier, more passionate. And much more importantly, it's meaning went deep, much more than even they knew at that time.

"I know it is cliché of me saying that, or if you'll even find it funny" Wolfgang said, as he dragged Tiki over the bed "But be nice to me. It will be my first time".

Tiki giggled at that "it's not funny" she said trying to look angry.

"But you laughed at it, I saw it" he said as he pulled her and made her lay by his side.

She giggled again "I never thought I'd have such a thing for an end party".

"Just who said it is over?" asked Wolfgang with a raised eyebrow "This is just the Party Start".


End file.
